This Is the Largest Map of Our Universe Ever Created

Scientists have mapped the largest amount of the night sky ever and you can explore it on the internet. The giant 2D map is a prerequisite for a 3D mapping project using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI. Check out the map here: legacysurvey.org/viewer
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Thumbnail Credit: Sky Viewer, DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys

Creating this map took more than 1,400 observing nights at three telescopes over the course of six years. Completely covering half the sky was a huge logistical challenge for the 200 researchers involved in the project. For the telescopes to take the best images possible, the team had to consider hours of darkness, weather, exposure time, the paths of planets and satellites, the moons brightness and locationthe list goes on.

Even with all those variables factored in, there was still the matter of creating one homogeneous image. Its not as simple as just stitching them all togetherthe scientists needed a way to minimize distortions caused by weather and atmospheric turbulence. To do this they used supercomputers to compare their images with past sky surveys and select the ones that most closely matched.

Once they had the most accurate and uniform pictures possible, they put them together and this is the result. Taking in the two billion objects sprinkled over such an enormous backdrop can be a bit overwhelming. To make navigating the stars more user-friendly, the researchers adapted street-mapping software to suit their needs. They created a tool called the Legacy Sky Survey Viewer. Users can jump to an object if they know its name, or toggle filters to help find specific object types. They can also turn on overlays to see constellations, or which galaxies the researchers plan to further study for the 3D map.

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Read More:

DESI Opens Its 5,000 Eyes to Capture the Colors of the Cosmos
https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2019/10/28/desi-opens-its-5000-eyes-to-capture-the-colors-of-the-cosmos/
"Like a powerful time machine, DESI will peer deeply into the universes infancy and early development up to about 11 billion years ago to create the most detailed 3D map of the universe."

Our Expanding Universe: Delving into Dark Energy
https://www.energy.gov/science/articles/our-expanding-universe-delving-dark-energy
"While astrophysicists know little about it, they often use "dark energy" as shorthand for the cause of this expansion. Based on its effects, they estimate dark energy could make up 70 percent of the combined mass and energy of the universe. Something unknown that both lies outside our current understanding of the laws of physics and is the major influence on the growth of the universe adds up to one of the biggest mysteries in physics."

Dark-energy mapper will reconstruct 11 billion years of cosmic history
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02424-8
"The survey will reconstruct 11 billion years of cosmic history. It could answer the first and most basic question about dark energy: is it a uniform force across space and time, or has its strength evolved over eons?"


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