“The Earth is just an atom for the observable universe. And the observable universe is an atom to the existing universe. That is a phrase from the world of astronomy that I once read and that describes the immensity of the place we inhabit as existential beings.
We want to think of the most exaggerated thing that occurs to us, but the mind does not even allow us to imagine how big the universe is. That is why, perhaps, the word infinity occurs to us.
In this constant search -which seems endless- to understand how big the universe is, a scientific team has developed an interactive map of the observable universe. He does it with the intention of understanding the number of stars, galaxies and star clusters there is in what “we can see”.
However, it only reminds us how insignificant we are in the face of such immensity.
Interactive map of the observable universe
According to what you review Urban Technobased on the explanation of the scientific team that developed this interactive map, it has taken about 15 years of observing the sky to obtain this final result.
They used images and data collected by a telescope located in a town in New Mexico. The Earth is in the lower part of the image that we are going to share with you and according to what can be seen, each point is a galaxy.
In the picture there is approximately 200 thousand galaxies. Remember that only in the Milky Way, a galaxy considered small, they estimate that there are between 100 thousand and 400 thousand million stars.
Several scientific organizations collaborated in the development of this map. But specifically it was an initiative of the Johns Hopkins University, United States.
“This ‘map of the observable universe’ is a pretty epic visualization of what we can currently see from Earth, looking back in time. Spoiler alert: It’s huge,” said expert Eric Berger.
What is the farthest thing we can currently see? Well, the moment of the Big Bang, about 13,700 million years ago. This burst can no longer be seen through light or radiation, but through waves, as part of Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity explains.
It is thought that behind that region there is much more field that, for now, is impossible for science to explore.