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Stars are organized into galaxies. Galaxies are organized into groups. Galaxy groups in turn form galaxy clusters, which form superclusters. Galaxy walls and filaments are the largest structures in the universe, consisting of sheets of superclusters. These walls and filaments are separated by immense voids, resulting in an overall foamy structure. This foam-like structure is sometimes called the 'cosmic web.'
Galaxy groups
Galaxy groups are a group of about 50 or fewer gravitationally bound galaxies. Groups of galaxies are the smallest aggregates of galaxies. They typically contain no more than 50 galaxies at a diameter of 1-2 mega parsecs. The mass of a galaxy group is about 10^13 solar masses.
Groups comprise about 50% of the galaxies in the local universe.
The Milky Way is a member of a group known as the Local Group. The Local Group has a total diameter of about 3 mega parsecs.
Galaxy clusters
Clusters are larger than groups. The mass of the galaxy cluster is typically 10^14 to 10^15 solar masses. They were believed to be the largest known structures in the universe until the discovery of superclusters in the 1980s.
Virgo Supercluster
Supercluster
Superclusters are groups of galaxy clusters or galaxy groups and are amongst the largest structures in the universe. The Milky Way is a part of the Virgo Supercluster. The supercluster contains the Local Group and the Virgo Cluster. The Virgo Supercluster is contained in the Laniakea Supercluster, which is contained in the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster complex.
There are estimated to be about 10 billion superclusters in the observable universe.
Filament
Galaxy filaments are the largest known structures of the universe. They consist of walls of galactic superclusters.
The biggest of these thread-like formations to be discovered is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, at around 3 giga parsecs in length.
Galaxy filaments form the cosmic web which defines the large-scale structure of the cosmos.
Void
The vast spaces between filaments are known as voids. They contain very few to no galaxies.
Voids typically have a diameter of 10 to 100 megaparsecs. Voids may be called 'super voids' on account of their lack of galaxies.
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