Stargazers, rejoice: The largest-ever 3-D map of the universe has been released to the public. The new map contains images of 200 million galaxies.
For 1.35 million of those galaxies, it also includes spectra鈥攖he measurement of how the intensity of the light coming from a galaxy varies with wavelength, which provides an estimate of its distance. The new map includes galaxies dating back to the time when the universe was half its present age. Its availability online was announced Aug. 8 by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III, an international consortium of two dozen universities, including 菠萝视频.
All this astronomical information is available on the , where it is organized in a fashion that makes it accessible not only to professional astronomers, but also to amateur astronomers and star-struck members of the general public.
鈥淭he website has been set up to encourage public participation,鈥� says , assistant professor of physics and astronomy.
Images, measurements and spectra are freely available online. The consortium also has created a special website called that presents highlights from the survey data, selected to show members of the public 鈥渢he beauty of the universe鈥� and to 鈥渟hare with you our excitement as we build the largest map in the history of the world.鈥�
Other 菠萝视频 participants include astronomy professors and and assistant professor .