Scientists release biggest 2D map of the universe(newscenter.lbl.gov)
58 pointsby NKosmatos2 hours ago10 comments
  • antonvsa few seconds ago
    Not many people know this, but the actual universe is 3D, so this map is misleading.
  • doodlebuggingan hour ago
    That's impressive. Though I think there's too much space on this plane. I'm wondering whether it is actually a 2D view since it obviously isn't planar.

    To paraphrase Samuel L Jackson - "I have had it with this m'f'ing space on a plane! Everybody strap in I'm about to open some f'in' windows."

    Proceeds to crank open an array of telescopes to get another 3D perspective of a 4D universe so we can project it onto our 2D viewing devices as if that were reality.

  • Towaway6938 minutes ago
    I wonder how many of the red points/stars are black hole stars[1]

    [1] https://news.mit.edu/2026/astronomers-discover-brand-new-typ...

  • ionwake14 minutes ago
    i note the hyperspace bypass is missing
  • br0ceph21 hours ago
    is there anyway to download the entire map, and play with it locally
  • fercircularbuf17 hours ago
    Wow, this is humbling
    • sambapa43 minutes ago
      In what ways? Galaxies are just fat fucks, they don't do no philosophy, play piano or shitpost.
      • Towaway6935 minutes ago
        If you squint, look at just the right portion, at just the right zoom level, the stars line up and spell out "thanks for all the fish".
        • sambapa28 minutes ago
          Hm, that's a good thing to consider - are there portions of the sky in which stars align into a coherent text?
          • Towaway6920 minutes ago
            Just gotta join the dots! ;)

            Or better still, develop a traveling salesman solution for visiting each star just once.

            > Bowerick Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged was a being who became immortal after an accident with a few rubber bands, a liquid lunch, and a particle accelerator. After a period of total boredom, especially on Sunday afternoons, he decided to insult everyone in the entire universe in alphabetical order. [1]

            So that wouldn't be just an academic exercise!

            [1] https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Bowerick_Wowbagger

          • dylan60417 minutes ago
            Feed it to an LLM to see what it hallucinates
  • cwmoorean hour ago
    Not this data, but from nearby 3D star map with rotations:

    https://www.ouruboroi.com/moire3

  • therobot24a day ago
    make sure you watch the youtube video embedded in the website, it adds some real perspective of just how massive this is
    • Snoeprol22 minutes ago
      Yep and the examples are really cool!
  • an hour ago
    undefined
  • zuzululu40 minutes ago
    why is there so many weird flat lines is that an artifact?

    this is fascinating wish there was a 360 VR version of this

    truly immense scale

    • dylan60415 minutes ago
      back when I was playing with making VR content, this is one of the first things I did by using an 8K rectilinear image from NASA. Mapped it to a sphere and lined up Polaris at the zenith, and then just had one of the best nights of stargazing I had ever had!