The newly unveiled COSMOS-Web is the largest, most detailed map of the universe ever created. The map plots nearly 800,000 galaxies, and almost spans the entire 13.8-billion-year history of the cosmos.
The map is the result of a multinational collaboration led by astrophysicists at UC Santa Barbara and the Rochester Institute of Technology - using data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope’s powerful infrared capabilities allowed researchers to peer deeper into space - and further back in time - than ever before, capturing galaxies from just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
The interactive COSMOS-Web viewer offers a groundbreaking way to explore data from the James Webb Space Telescope firsthand. Users can pan and zoom across deep space, tracing the structure of the universe and inspecting individual galaxies. While the map answers some long-standing questions, it also raises profound new ones, challenging current models of cosmic evolution and opening the door to discoveries about dark matter, galaxy formation, and the very origins of light. By making this enormous dataset publicly accessible, the COSMOS team aims to empower astronomers around the world - from seasoned researchers to students - to investigate the early universe in new ways.
You can also explore the universe interactively using:
- ESA Star Mapper - an interactive map visualizing 59,921 stars from the Hipparcos Catalogue
- Hubble Skymap - NASA's interactive Hubble-eye view of observable galaxies, stars, and nebulae
No comments:
Post a Comment