An incredible road map of the Universe showing the pathways between our Milky Way and 100,000 other far away galaxies has been revealed by scientists after a 10-year quest into the unknown . The gigantic supercluster of stars , planets and asteroids , which stretches 500 million light years across and has the mass of a hundred quadrillion suns , has been named Laniakea - Hawaiian for 'immeasurable heaven ' . The astonishing discovery has revealed that the Milky Way - home to Earth and our solar system - is on the fringes of the enormous cosmic web . Scroll down for video . An incredible road map of the Universe revealing the pathways between our Milky Way ( red dot ) and 100,000 other far away galaxies has been revealed . The gigantic super-cluster of stars , planets and asteroids , which stretches 500 million light years across and has the mass of a hundred quadrillion suns , has been named Laniakea . The astonishing discovery has revealed that the Milky Way ( red dot ) - home to Earth and our solar system - is on the fringes of the enormous cosmic web . The vast road map may look as though it is densely packed , however there are vast expanses of darkness where nothing can be found for hundreds of light years . Our supercluster is the first to be mapped and shows galaxies strung out along glowing pathways that are held together by gravity as the groups make their way through space . Scientists have long-known that galaxies are not distributed randomly but congregate together in clusters . When these clusters meet in the cosmos , they create giant superclusters , like Laniakea . To put the sheer size of the supercluster into context , the Earth is the third planet from our Sun , which is one of just billions of stars within the Milky Way . Other than being our home , our galaxy is nothing special and is one of around 100,000 within our supercluster . And even though the collection of bright galaxies is incomprehensibly large , it makes up just a corner of the observable Universe . Within Laniakea , galaxies flow inwards towards a region called the Great Attractor , the equivalent of a large gravitational valley . Our supercluster is the first to be mapped and shows galaxies strung out along glowing pathways that are held together by gravity . The vast road map may look as though it is densely packed , however there are vast expanses of darkness where nothing can be found for hundreds of light years . The astronomers compared the movement of the galaxies with that of water among hills and valleys to chart the supercluster . Dr Brent Tully , from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu , led the team of scientists that mapped Laniakea 's boundaries . Around our supercluster are four others - known as Shapley , Hercules , Coma and Perseus-Pisces - however it is difficult to show exactly where our neighbourhood of galaxies ends and the others begin . Dr Brent Tully , from the University of Hawaii in Honolulu , led the team of scientists that mapped Laniakea 's boundaries from measurements of the velocities of local galaxies . The researchers compared the galactic movement with that of water in a landscape of hills and valleys , tracing the outer surface of a region where the net-motion of galaxies was inward . They wrote in the journal Nature : 'We define a supercluster to be the volume within such a surface , and so we are defining the extent of our home supercluster , which we call Laniakea . '
Scientists reveal the Milky Way 's position in an enormous supercluster of galaxies after 10-year quest into unknown . Huge supercluster stretches 500 million light years across and has the mass of a hundred quadrillion suns . Incredible road map reveals Earth is connected with planets , stars and asteroids an unimaginable distance away . Milky Way is on fringes of gigantic cosmic web , which has been named Laniakea - meaning " great cloud ceiling " by astronomers.