There is no “blanket of stars.” The night sky we all see has infinite depth. From Earth at night with naked eyes we mostly see the stars of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, but beyond is the entire universe. Using powerful telescopes it can be navigated and known. All you need is a map—and they keep getting better.
This week saw the release of the largest two-dimensional map of the sky ever made. It comes from the tenth data release from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, a six-year survey of nearly half the sky using telescopes at Kitt Peak in Arizona and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
The Legacy Surveys— which can be explored online —is designed to create the most comprehensive map of the sky possible to help astronomers understand how the universe has expanded over the last 12 billion years. That’s critical to understanding “dark energy,” an unknown force that appears to be accelerating the universe’s expansion.
Comments are closed.