Ever wished you could zoom through a hyper-realistic map of the universe at many times the speed of light? Now you can.
Newly released to the public this week, the largest-ever 3D map of the universe includes includes galaxies that date back seven billion years. The map was created by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III, an association of two dozen universities from around the world.
The group uses a massive wide-angle optical telescope at New Mexico’s Apache Point Observatory to record the cosmos bit by bit. The telescope’s findings are then used to piece together an unprecedented look at our universe. The animation in the YouTube video embedded above includes more than 400,000 galaxies.
And each galaxy, remember, is hundreds of thousands of light years side-to-side.
So sit back, press play (we suggest adding a soundtrack) (which I have done, you will probably want to turn up the sound...javajolt) — and enjoy the show. The group’s findings can be explored in depth at the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey III website.
source:mashable
