The Anglo-Australian Observatory unveiled the most detailed survey of nearby galaxies ever completed according to USA Today. The new map shows the location of about 110,000 galaxies and projects where they’re headed.The survey shows strings and clusters of nearby galaxies on large scales in unprecedented detail, and has revealed more than 500 voids‚apparently empty areas of space with no galaxies,” says an AAO statement.
The galaxy map covers 80% of the southern sky, out to about 2 billion light-years away (one light years is about 5.9 trillion miles.) A study describing the survey has been submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal.
In a word?
AWESOME.
That’s actually a map of galaxies, not just our galaxy. “New map of the local universe” would be a more accurate title.
One walks away from this thinking one of two things:
1. We are truly not alone in the universe…
2. We are truly unique to this universe…..
I tend toward the 1st train of thought.
I’d love to see a hi-res shot of that. Will have to dig around to see if I can find one. Now, does anyone care to overlay the Star Trek Universe map on top of that? 😛