Hundreds of galaxies hidden from view behind the Milky Way have been unveiled in unprecedented detail for the first time.

Key points: 883 galaxies detected hidden in the nearby universe behind the Milky Way

883 galaxies detected hidden in the nearby universe behind the Milky Way Discovery provides new data on collections of galactic clusters and superclusters that make up the mysterious Great Attractor

Discovery provides new data on collections of galactic clusters and superclusters that make up the mysterious Great Attractor Our Milky Way galaxy is moving towards the Great Attractor at 2 million kph

The discovery, reported in the Astronomical Journal, has provided astronomers with new information about a mysterious gravitational anomaly in intergalactic space known as the Great Attractor.

"The Great Attractor contains a large number of galaxy clusters and superclusters and our whole Milky Way is moving towards them at more than 2 million kilometres per hour," said the study's lead author Professor Lister Staveley-Smith, of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research at the University of Western Australia.

Astronomers have been trying to map the galaxies hidden in the so-called Zone of Avoidance - a part of the sky obscured by the Milky Way - since major deviations in the rate of expansion of the universe in this area were detected during the 1970s and 1980s.

"We didn't actually understand what's causing this gravitational acceleration on the Milky Way or where it's coming from," Professor Staveley-Smith said.

"We knew there were a few very large collections of galaxies we call clusters or superclusters in this region."

The Dish peers behind our galaxy's far side

CSIRO'S radio telescope, affectionately known as The Dish, is so sensitive it can detect galaxies behind the Milky Way. ( AAP/CSIRO )

The international team of researchers used the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope to peer through the Milky Way's thick layers of gas, dust and glaring starlight into a previously unexplored region of space to see what lies behind our galaxy's far side.

"The Milky Way is very beautiful of course and it's very interesting to study our own galaxy, but it completely blocks out the view of the more distant galaxies behind it," Professor Staveley-Smith said.

The researchers identified 883 galaxies, a third of which had never been seen before, despite being just 250 million light-years away - very close in astronomical terms.

These included three galaxy concentrations which have been named NW1, NW2 and NW3, and two new clusters named CW1 and CW2.

"What we see behind the Milky Way is very similar to the rest of the universe," Professor Staveley-Smith said.

"But the density of galaxies in this region seems to be a fair bit higher than in the average region in the nearby universe, and this contributes to gravitational tug that the region is able to exert on us and all other nearby galaxies."

Professor Staveley-Smith and colleagues also identified a number of galaxies in a vast empty region of the nearby universe known as the local void.

"We confirmed the void does exist, but the sensitivity of the Parkes telescope means we did find some galaxies in and around the void," Professor Staveley-Smith said.

Dr Barbel Koibalski from CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science said technologies on the Parkes Telescope had enabled the team to survey large areas of the sky very quickly.

"With the 21-centimetre multi-beam receiver on Parkes we're able to map the sky 13 times faster than we could before and make new discoveries at a much greater rate," she said.