New map of the universe unveiled


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The international Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III (SDSS-III) collaboration is releasing the image free to all, allowing both professional astronomers and "citizen scientists" to use it to make new discoveries.

The composite image has been put together over the past decade from more than seven million 2.8 megapixel images, creating a colour image of more than a trillion pixels.

This terapixel image is so big and detailed that 500,000 high-definition televisions would be needed to view it at its full resolution.

SDSS data has already been used to discover nearly half a billion astronomical objects, including asteroids, stars, galaxies and distant quasars.

The image released on Tuesday was begun in 1998 using what was then the world's largest digital camera, a 126-megapixel imaging detector on the back of a dedicated 2.5m telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, US.

During the past decade, the SDSS has scanned a third of the whole sky.

Using the new image scientists will be able to measure distances to more than a million galaxies detected in it, helping to provide data for a new project to create a 3D map of the universe.

It is hoped this will help solve the mystery of so-called "dark energy" and how much of the universe is taken up by it.

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It really humbles one when you stop to think about the size of the universe. It truly make you wonder how many more planets out there support live in any configuration.

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I don't remember what channel I was watching, (SCI I think) but they were showing how the new binocular telescope was built. This is the largest of it kind in the world and contents two mirrors that are approximately 27' across. It took almost twenty years to complete the process. It is really interesting all the work and engineering that went into this project. The telescope is located in the eastern Arizona mountains at 10,000 feet, hence very little problem with city lights. A great show.

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I would imagine this would be an absolutely massive download. 7 million 2.8 megapixel images sounds pretty outrageous.

But maybe I'm wrong.

Hopefully they'll also upload it using something like Microsoft's DeepZoom technology, so we can view it without having to download a few terabytes of data rofl.gif

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I don't remember what channel I was watching, (SCI I think) but they were showing how the new binocular telescope was built. This is the largest of it kind in the world and contents two mirrors that are approximately 27' across. It took almost twenty years to complete the process. It is really interesting all the work and engineering that went into this project. The telescope is located in the eastern Arizona mountains at 10,000 feet, hence very little problem with city lights. A great show.

I can't wait for the James Webb Telescope to replace the Hubble :D

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