The largest 2D map of the universe ever created just got bigger as scientists added even more data. The result is evident as almost a billion galaxies are now depicted on the map.
Thanks to a “colossal” update, the ambitious project to map the vast night sky above our heads now includes more than a billion galaxies.
The aim of the updated map is to help astronomers better understand the makeup of the universe, which could help them unravel the mysterious properties of dark matter and dark energy, and thus the universe’s accelerating expansion.
It is noted that astronomers from every corner of the world want to accurately map the expansion history of the universe over the last 12 billion years. In fact, the survey called “DESI” is one of three that have managed to image 14,000 square degrees of the sky from the northern hemisphere, using giant telescopes in Arizona and Chile.
One of the main goals of the map is to identify about 40 million target galaxies for the five-year DESI Spectroscopic Survey to help better understand the mysterious dark energy. Dark energy makes up almost 70% of the universe, but it still remains an unknown form of energy for scientists.
