Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2023 July 5 [2]A map of the observable universe is illustrated in a wedge with the the Earth on the bottom and the universe fanning out above. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. A Map of the Observable Universe Image Credit & Copyright: [3]B. Ménard & [4]N. Shtarkman; Data: [5]SDSS, [6]Planck, [7]JHU, [8]Sloan, [9]NASA, [10]ESA Explanation: What if you could see out to the edge of the [11]observable universe? You would see galaxies, galaxies, galaxies, and then, well, [12]quasars, which are the bright centers of distant [13]galaxies. To expand understanding of the very largest scales that humanity can see, [14]a map of the galaxies and quasars found by the [15]Sloan Digital Sky [16]Survey from 2000 to 2020 -- out to near the [17]edge of the [18]observable universe -- has been composed. [19]Featured here, one wedge from this survey encompasses about 200,000 [20]galaxies and [21]quasars out beyond a [22]look-back time of 12 billion years and [23]cosmological redshift 5. Almost every dot in the nearby lower part of [24]the illustration represents a [25]galaxy, with redness indicating increasing [26]redshift and distance. Similarly, almost every dot on the upper part represents a distant [27]quasar, with blue-shaded dots being closer than red. Clearly shown among [28]many discoveries, gravity between galaxies has caused the nearby universe to [29]condense and become increasingly [30]more filamentary than the [31]distant universe. More Detailed Maps: [32]Related to Today's APOD Tomorrow's picture: open space __________________________________________________________________ [33]< | [34]Archive | [35]Submissions | [36]Index | [37]Search | [38]Calendar | [39]RSS | [40]Education | [41]About APOD | [42]Discuss | [43]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [44]Robert Nemiroff ([45]MTU) & [46]Jerry Bonnell ([47]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [48]Specific rights apply. [49]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [50]ASD at [51]NASA / [52]GSFC, [53]NASA Science Activation & [54]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2307/MapObsUni_SDSS_2400.jpg 3. https://menard.pha.jhu.edu/ 4. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikita-shtarkman-78b449154 5. https://www.sdss.org/ 6. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/planck 7. https://physics-astronomy.jhu.edu/ 8. https://sloan.org/ 9. https://www.nasa.gov/ 10. https://www.esa.int/ 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220316.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220222.html 13. https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-are-galaxies 14. https://youtu.be/Oekma9SZMMI 15. https://www.sdss.org/instruments/ 16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloan_Digital_Sky_Survey 17. https://t3.ftcdn.net/jpg/02/08/78/88/360_F_208788856_Gp1H7eajSqVxoZYqX7xqWf24iC4UCruI.jpg 18. https://esahubble.org/videos/hubblecast79c/ 19. https://mapoftheuniverse.net/ 20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy 21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasar 22. https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_lookback.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130408.html 24. https://hub.jhu.edu/2022/11/17/interactive-universe-map/ 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220529.html 26. https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2019/20/4378-Image 27. https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/q/quasar 28. https://www.sdss.org/science/ 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200223.html 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap990905.html 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210802.html 32. https://mapoftheuniverse.net/ 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230704.html 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 35. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 36. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 37. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 38. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 39. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 40. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 41. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 42. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=230705 43. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230706.html 44. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 45. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 46. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 47. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 48. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 49. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 50. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 51. https://www.nasa.gov/ 52. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 53. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 54. http://www.mtu.edu/