Skip to main content

See the entire observable universe represented in this interactive map

If you’ve ever wanted to bask in the cosmic majesty of all that exists or feel the existential horror of your own smallness, a new interactive map will show you the entire observable universe.

You can view the map at mapoftheuniverse.net, where you’ll find an overview of the types of objects which are visible and a timescale explaining how what is visible is related to its age due to the speed of light. If you’ve ever struggled to comprehend the relationship between time and distance in what is observable, this tool is helpful in showing that.

Visualization of the observable universe, using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Visualization of the observable universe, using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Visualization by B. MéNard & N. Shtarkman

The idea was to make something accessible to the public rather than highly technical, the creators said. “Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries,” map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins, said in a statement. “But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like.”

Recommended Videos

The map uses data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a project to create a 3D map of the universe using a telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. Running in various forms since 2000, data from the survey has been used to study everything from how galaxies are distributed across the universe and where dark matter might be located to the properties of stars in the Milky Way.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Data from the survey covering a particular slice of the sky was used to make the map, which shows 200,000 galaxies, each one appearing as a small dot. Right at the very bottom of the map is a dot corresponding to the Milky Way.

“In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets,” Ménard said. “We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale.”

As well as visualizing the scope of the observable universe, the map also uses color to demonstrate the redshift of different galaxies, with more distant galaxies appearing redder because the expansion of the universe stretches the spectrum of light coming from them.

“Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it’s our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people,” said Ménard.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Watch this surreal aurora footage captured from the space station
An aurora as seen from the space station 250 miles above Earth.

One of the highlights for astronauts who spend time aboard the International Space Station (ISS) is the chance to enjoy breathtaking aurora from some 250 miles above Earth.

The space station’s X account has just shared some stunning footage showing an aurora captured by a camera on the ISS as it traveled over Canada, from west to east.

Read more
Euclid telescope spots a rare Einstein Ring in a nearby galaxy
Euclid image of a bright Einstein ring around galaxy NGC 6505

The Euclid Space Telescope has captured a remarkable image showing an extremely rare phenomenon: a ring of light around the center of a galaxy, known as an Einstein Ring. These structures appear in telescope images due to the distorting effects of gravity, and they allow researchers to study distant galaxies which might otherwise be insibile.

The ring was spotted around the center of galaxy NGC 6505, located in our cosmic back yard at just 590 million light-years from Earth. The ring itself is created by light from a background galaxy which is a whopping 4.42 billion light-years away, and which has been distorted into the ring shape due to the mass of the foreground galaxy. This effect, called gravitational lensing, is not uncommon -- but it is rare for the galaxies to be aligned just so, to create a perfect ring of light.

Read more
Watch NASA’s ‘launch to splashdown’ video for Artemis II lunar mission
An animation of NASA's SLS rocket heading skyward.

NASA has released a detailed animation (above) showing how the Artemis II mission will look from launch to splashdown.

The Artemis II mission is currently scheduled to launch from Florida's Space Coast in early 2026 and will fly four astronauts around the moon before returning to Earth. The highly anticipated mission will last about 10 days and will be the first crewed test flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and the Orion spacecraft.

Read more