The Hercules Superclusters (SCl 160) refers to a set of two nearby superclusters of galaxies.[2]
Relative to other local superclusters, Hercules is considered particularly large, being approximately 330 Mly in diameter. The Northern Local Supervoid lies in front of the superclusters, and is as big as the superclusters themselves.[3] The redshifts of the member galaxies lie between 0.0304 and 0.0414.[1]
In the 1930s, Harlow Shapley studied the structure of the distribution of galaxies in the constellation of Hercules, and was probably first to discover the existence of a supercluster in that region. However, this was not confirmed until the 1970s. In 1976, Massimo Tarenghi suggested that the A2151 cluster was part of a single supercluster, and at a conference in Estonia in 1977, he, together with several other astronomers, presented evidence that it was indeed a supercluster that appeared in that region.[2]
