This 3-D Map Will Make Teaching Astronomy a Whole Lot Cooler

May 31, 2011

"NASA's shuttle program may be winding down, but that doesn't mean there isn't a whole universe left to explore—and a whole new generation of astronomers and astronauts to get excited about life beyond our chunk of rock. Now, thanks to 10 years of work on the part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, budding scientists will now have a better picture, literally, of what's out there than we've ever had. The image above is the result of the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) and is "the most complete 3-D map of the local universe (out to a distance of 380 million light-years) ever created."

Not only is the map gorgeous (click here) and destined to make teaching the specifics of the universe a whole lot easier, the technology behind it is also pretty sweet."Read more at good.is