A Cosmological Wonder
Based on research of the Sloan Survey, this sculpture encompasses the latest views of all galaxies we can see in one quandrant of the sky, within 1000 megaparsecs of Earth.
Scaled into this map, the Galaxy Crystal would be less than 1 millimeter wide.
In order to magnify our views of some of the largest space objects, this model crystal shows filaments, sheets, and supergalaxy clusters, which are too large to be ordinarily seen in the night sky.
Our local group of galaxies is located on the edge of a filament extending from the Virgo Cluster to the Fornax Cluster. In this model, which is not a literal map, we would be about a quarter of the cube away from the largest cluster.
The data gathered by Professor Quinn and Dr. Stadel at the University of Washington was used to create this model. NASA Earth and Space Sciences/High Performance Computing and Communication Program funded the research.
The model is 2 1/2" square by 3 1/4" tall.
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