A Map of the Observable Universe

Explanation: What if you could see out to the edge of the observable universe ? You would see galaxies, galaxies, galaxies, and then, well, quasar s, which are the bright centers of distant galaxies . To expand understanding of the very largest scales that humanity can see, a map of the galaxies and quasars found by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey from 2000 to 2020 -- out to near the edge of the observable universe -- has been composed. Featured here , one wedge from this survey encompasses about 200,000 galaxies and quasars out beyond a look-back time of 12 billion years and cosmological redshift 5. Almost every dot in the nearby lower part of the illustration represents a galaxy , with redness indicating increasing redshift and distance. Similarly, almost every dot on the upper part represents a distant quasar , with blue-shaded dots being closer than red. Clearly shown among many discoveries , gravity between galaxies has caused the nearby universe to condense and become increasingly more filamentary than the distant universe .

More Detailed Maps: Related to Today's APOD