Astronomers have released the largest 2D color map of the universe ever created, featuring data on approximately 4 billion stars, galaxies, and other cosmic objects. Developed by the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys team, the map comprises an astonishing 5.6 trillion pixels. The dataset is now accessible to the public, astronomers, and citizen scientists through the online Legacy Survey Sky Viewer.

This detailed new image is expected to enable scientists to identify rare cosmic phenomena, including gravitational lensing and short-lived events such as supernovae. Furthermore, the map is poised to assist researchers in addressing two major cosmic mysteries: dark matter, which is believed to account for most of the universe’s mass, and dark energy, which is driving the universe’s accelerating expansion.

This new map builds upon earlier data from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, which has already become a cornerstone in astronomical research. More than 1,800 scientific papers have utilized or cited the Legacy Surveys data. David Schlegel, co-principal investigator of the Legacy Surveys and a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the U.S., noted that the data has become an integral part of astronomical research, with experts frequently consulting the Legacy Imaging Viewer before beginning studies of cosmic objects.

The creation of this map offers scientists an exceptional opportunity to better understand the universe’s large-scale structure, the billions of objects within it, and its fundamental secrets.

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only and is based on publicly available reports. The image is AI generated and is just for reference.
#Astronomy, #DESI, #UniverseMap, #DarkMatter, #SpaceScience