Take A Look At This 10 Trillion Pixel Image Of The Night Sky
A photograph of the northern sky that weighs in at a whopping petabyte has become a treasure trove of information for astronomers.
Space is an impossibly massive zone that countless stars and planets reside in, and if you want to capture even a fraction of the sky then you re going to have to approach that challenge with some equally gigantic ideas. Astronomers across the world gathered for a chance to capture a photo of the northern sky according to SyFy, pooling resources over six years to create a 10 trillion pixel image.
trillion pixels, and makes up a
petabyte of data a thousand terabytes, or a million gigabytes.
Oh, it also has over
a billion galaxies in it. A. Billion.
Like I said: Vast.
It s the result of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, maps of the sky made by the three observatories (the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey, the Beijing-Arizona Sky Survey, and the Mayall zband Legacy Survey, in combination with the orbiting WISE infrared observatory). They mapped the northern sky in seven colors, covering a third of the entire sky 14,000 square degrees, or the equivalent area of 70,000 full Moons on the sky.
This New 10 Terapixel Image of the Night Sky Contains 1 Billion Galaxies
Feb 08, 2021
It’s the result of the DESI Legacy Imagining Surveys, maps of the sky made by the three observatories (the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey, the Beijing-Arizona Sky Survey, and the Mayall z-band Legacy Survey, in combination with the orbiting WISE infrared observatory). They mapped the northern sky in seven colors, covering a third of the entire sky 14,000 square degrees, or the equivalent area of 70,000 full Moons on the sky.
The ultimate goal is to better understand dark energy, the mysterious substance that’s accelerating the expansion of the Universe, by looking at the distribution of galaxies throughout the Universe. They’ll do that by picking tens of millions of the billion galaxies in the data and getting follow-up observations with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), which will take spectra of those galaxies and find their distances.
This week you can explore books as art, try an outdoor yoga class, or learn more about the night sky. Here’s a roundup of live and virtual events happening around metro Phoenix, along with a friendly reminder to follow mask and social distancing guidelines. ABBA’s Greatest Hits
An artist book collective called A Bunch of Book Artists (hence, the moniker “ABBA”) is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a free exhibition of artist books, experimental prints, and zines created by dozens of artists and community members whose themes range from cultural awareness to environmental issues. Featured artists include Peter Bugg, Monica Garcia, Jacob Meders, and Kristin Millie Salazar. This week you can check it out Monday through Friday between noon and 3 p.m. inside Harry Wood Gallery on the ASU Tempe campus.
Building a Giant 2D Map of the Universe to Prepare for the Largest 3D Map
Nearly 200 researchers pitched in to gather, process, and stitch together images for half of the sky to prepare for the start of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument’s observations
January 13, 2021
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This video describes the monumental effort that went into constructing a 2D map of the universe to prepare for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, which will produce the largest-ever 3D map of the universe. The final data release for the preparation of this 2D map, known as Data Release 9 or DR9, was distributed Jan. 13. (Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)