This is a map of the universe. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona, has finished its five-year survey. It observed more than 47 million galaxies and quasars and created a 3D map centered on the Earth. Today's featured image shows a thin slice of these data: the black gaps indicate where our Galaxy obscures distant objects. The feathery web in the inset shows the large scale structure of the universe. Light of the most distant galaxies shown here travelled for 11 billion years to reach the Earth. Galaxies cluster throughout cosmic history under the competing influences of gravity and dark energy, responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe. Analysis of early DESI results hinted at the possibility that dark energy, described as a cosmological constant by Albert Einstein, may not be constant after all. But we still have to wait for the analysis of the now complete dataset. The nature of dark energy is the biggest mystery of cosmology.
with how big space is. does the map determine if the location is where the thing currently are or just everything we can see at this time.
Because of relativity, there is no difference.
Is there a limit at how often my mind can be blown?!
Twelve. Then the next one is free.
the latter. the map looks different further away from the center of the circle because further away = earlier time. if they attempted to compensate for how things far away have changed since the light was emitted, the map would look uniform.
What do those colored rings mean?
Check this comment https://mander.xyz/comment/26729021
@expatriado@lemmy.world do you happen to know what the less dense ring in the outer part is?
My not very confident guess is that it's just to label what kind of galaxies are observed by the instrument at that range. Really not sure about the less dense ring in the outer part though.