July 18, 2016 AT 7:11 pm
We’ve Now Mapped 1.2M Galaxies Across 650 Cubic Billion Light-Years of Space in Three Dimensions
Absolutely incredible what humans are capable of when we put our minds to work:
The astronomical map you see here doesn’t depict stars, it shows galaxies—1.2 million of them, to be exact, a new record for astronomers. This extraordinary new 3D scan of the universe provides yet more evidence that a mysterious substance known as dark energy is likely causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate.
The map encompasses 650 cubic billion light-years of space—about a quarter of the sky—and required the work of hundreds of scientists from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). BOSS is a program within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) that measures the sound waves of the early universe, which left faint imprints on the cosmic background radiation—the “afterglow,” as it were, of the Big Bang. They also left their imprints on the distribution of galaxies, which is what BOSS is using to map the positions and distances of galaxies back through time.
Check out all the Circuit Playground Episodes! Our new kid’s show and subscribe!
Have an amazing project to share? Join the SHOW-AND-TELL every Wednesday night at 7:30pm ET on Google+ Hangouts.
Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!
Learn resistor values with Mho’s Resistance or get the best electronics calculator for engineers “Circuit Playground” – Adafruit’s Apps!
Maker Business — Transforming Today’s Bad Jobs into Tomorrow’s Good Jobs
Wearables — Is it armor or fabric?
Electronics — With SMT, start big …
Biohacking — Four Lucid Dreaming Wearables
No Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.