Imagine the entire universe laid out in a three-dimensional map.
Well, imagine no more, it's a reality. According to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59051,00.html">this article on Wired News</a>, a couple of scientists in New York have made just such a map. It's not as accurate as they'd like, but that's mainly because our actual knowlege of the universe is pretty limited. Still, it's a three-dimensional map of the heavens that can be navigated in pretty fast "real-time". Though, real time would take hundreds of years to get us from place to place, so it's actually a lot quicker than that. A very cool learning tool that will, hopefully, inspire legions of future astronomers and space scientists.
You can experience the magic, in a more limited fashion, right on your desktop. The Hayden Observitory, who created the "big" map, also created <a target="_blank" href="http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/hp/vo/partiview/pv_whatis.html">Partiv…;, which let's you see the same thing they show at the observatory at home, though it's not quite as spectacular.
Enjoy!
- Log in to post comments