This Awesome Map Lets You Check Out The Entire Known Universe

Photo Credit: Johns Hopkins University

The universe’s age and its vastness are incomprehensible, but that hasn’t stopped humankind from making admirable efforts. Well, astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have put together a map that lets you scroll through the entire known universe in all its glory.

The map shows around 200,000 galaxies as small dots, spanning all the way to the edge of the observable universe. The team used the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data gathered over 20 years to showcase the exact whereabouts of the galaxies in a celestial slice that allows users to scroll through billions of years in an instant.

Mapping Out The Known Universe

This isn’t the first time someone has attempted mapping out the known universe; however, none have managed to reach the level that the new map has. Interestingly, the new map uses data that was previously unreleased to the public, and it might be the most accurate cosmic ever laid out for average people.

"Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries." said John Hopkins professor Brice Ménard, the map's creator.

"But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists," he added. "Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."

The starting point of the map is the Milky Way galaxy. It is surrounded by light blue dots that signify spiral galaxies up to two billion light years away from our planet.

Taking To The Edge Of The Universe

As users move further ahead, they will see yellow dots that show elliptical galaxies outshining the spiral ones. Further ahead, the red gradient color takes over the map, showing another set of elliptical galaxies. The yellow light has been stretched into red because of the phenomenon known as redshifting.

After the gradient red color, users will see an ocean of blue dots, representing quasars, the luminous supermassive black holes that are located at the center of distant galaxies.

The map also shows some red dots, which depict redshifted quasars, spread across the universe’s boundary. At last, the map ends at 13.7 billion light years away, where the light has been stretched by the expansion of the Universe and arrives at us as radiowaves. It is known as the Cosmic Microwave Background.