400 galaxies, including our own, are being drawn toward a mysterious

Astronomers have found that 400 galaxies, including our own, are being pulled toward an unseen "something . "

The research team - including astronomers at the University of Hawaii, US; Claude Bernrard Lyon 1, France; Hebrew, Israel and the CEA Research Institute - Saclay, France - said they found galaxies converging towards the Norma and Centaurus galaxy clusters , approximately at the location of the "Great Attractor".

The great attraction lies beyond our galaxy - (NASA image).

Scientists don't know exactly what's pulling our galaxy there, but the only force that could do that is gravity. And the force pulling us is certainly strong.

Previously, in 1929, scientists discovered that the redshift of a galaxy is proportional to its distance. Redshift is a physical phenomenon in which light emitted by objects moving away from the observer will appear redder.

The discovery gave astronomers a way to measure distant galaxies, leading to the discovery that most galaxies are moving away from us, reinforcing the idea of ​​an expanding universe.

However, this knowledge eventually leads them to a disturbing new discovery.

As they continued to map the observable universe, they noticed 400 elliptical galaxies moving toward a place we can't see, tentatively called the "Great Attractor."

According to astronomers , the 'Great Attractor' deserves a name. In Hawaiian, 'lani' means 'heaven' and 'akea' means 'spacious, endless.' And they propose the name for the galaxy we're headed toward: the 'Laniakea Supercluster.'

How far away is this 'Great Attractor' ? What would happen if our galaxy were pulled into it? And would we be able to see the source of its power? These are all questions that astronomers around the world are trying to answer.