What makes the Virgo Cluster’s total mass orders of magnitude greater than the Milky Way's mass?

Answer

The cumulative effect of 1,300+ galaxies plus the vast amounts of dark matter holding them together.

The quantitative disparity between the Milky Way and the Virgo Cluster is immense due to more than just the number of stars. While the cluster contains the combined mass of over 1,300 galaxies, which alone totals many trillions of stars, the gravitational pull far exceeds what visible matter accounts for. A critical component contributing to the superior mass of the Virgo Cluster is the vast amounts of dark matter that are necessary to hold the entire structure gravitationally together, causing the total mass difference to be orders of magnitude greater than that of a single galaxy.

What makes the Virgo Cluster’s total mass orders of magnitude greater than the Milky Way's mass?

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