ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Shapley Supercluster

Okay kiddo, the Shapley Supercluster is like a really big group of galaxies that live close to each other in space. Think of it like a big family of stars, but instead of just a few people, there are millions of them!

Now, these galaxies are all hanging out together because they are attracted to each other by their own gravity. It's kind of like how you and your friends might stick together because you all like playing the same games or watching the same movies.

The Shapley Supercluster is named after an astronomer named Harlow Shapley. He first discovered it in the 1930s when he was studying the sky with a telescope. He saw that there were a bunch of galaxies all grouped together, and he realized they were part of a bigger structure. It's kind of like how you might notice that all the houses on your street belong to one big neighborhood.

Since then, scientists have studied the Shapley Supercluster more and more. They've found that it's one of the biggest structures in the universe! It's so big that it's hard to imagine just how many galaxies there are in there.

But even though it's huge, the Shapley Supercluster is just one part of the universe. There are lots of other groups of galaxies out there, and scientists are still trying to figure out how they all fit together. It's kind of like trying to put together a really big puzzle!

So, in short, the Shapley Supercluster is a really big family of galaxies that live close to each other in space. They hang out together because they're attracted to each other by their own gravity. Scientists have been studying the Shapley Supercluster for a long time, and it's one of the biggest structures in the universe!