Our zoomable map of the known universe allows you to compare what we had discovered in 1950 with what we know now
Posted 11.02.2011 at 11:18 am
13 Comments
Before the telescope was invented in 1608, our picture of the universe consisted of six planets, our moon, the sun and any stars we could see in the Milky Way galaxy. But as our light-gathering capabilities have grown, so too have the boundaries of the visible universe. Our interactive map shows how the known universe has grown from 1950 to 2011.
In the late 1700s, William Herschel, an English astronomer using a telescope with an 18.7-inch aperture, made the first systematic surveys of the skies, revealing more than 2,000 distant galaxies, nebulae and other objects invisible to the naked eye. Since then, increasingly powerful optical and radio telescopes have greatly expanded our store of knowledge.
In 1948, astronomers erected the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory in California, and now, large-scale projects such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and NASA’s Kepler mission use sensitive digital imaging and computational power to collect and analyze hundreds of terabytes of data on millions of galaxies billions of light-years from Earth. With each additional bit of data, the universe itself grows larger.
13 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Technology
140 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Innovation Challenges
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
June 2012: Invent Your Own Anything
The 6th annual Invention Awards are here, from an inflatable tourniquet to a better lobster trap to spring-loaded hocket skates. This issue is all about the celebration of invention.
Plus: Making synthetic biology breakthroughs in a garage, building a constantly-moving ping-pong table, and a ridiculously overpowered barbecue.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Technology
- Engineer Details Plans to Build a Real, Burj-Dubai-Sized Starship Enterprise in 20 Years
- Video: Amazing Coating For Bottles' Interiors Lets Ketchup Flow Like Water
- Magnetic Jet Injection Device Can Shoot Any Drug Through the Skin, No Needle Required
- 100-Year Starship Project Forges Ahead With First Round of Funding
- Russian Space Chief: 'We’re Talking About Establishing Permanent Bases' On the Moon
- The Dawn of the Commercial Space Age is (Probably) Happening This Weekend
- Living in the Future: Multitouch, or How I Learned to Love the Mac
- Backpack Radar Can Detect Ambushers Within 150 Acres
- Video: In Record-Breaking Parachuteless Skydive, Man Jumps 2,400 Feet Into a Pile of Boxes
- Would You Ride This Pencil-Shaped Capsule To Space?
Most Emailed
Technology
- NASA Says: Please Don't Touch Our Stuff When You Go to the Moon
- SpaceX Dragon Successfully Captured by International Space Station
- Backpack Radar Can Detect Ambushers Within 150 Acres
- This Summer, Take a Class on How to Design a Space Hotel
- Today in Good Reads: A Q&A With a Military Bioethicist
- Magnetic Jet Injection Device Can Shoot Any Drug Through the Skin, No Needle Required
- Video: In Record-Breaking Parachuteless Skydive, Man Jumps 2,400 Feet Into a Pile of Boxes
- Video: Paratrooping Roomba-Style Drone Concept Could Help Clean Oil Spills
- Snazzy All-in-One "Vancouver Poles" to Replace Ugly Urban Forest of Cell Towers and Cables
- Would You Ride This Pencil-Shaped Capsule To Space?
Most Viewed
Technology
- Living in the Future: Multitouch, or How I Learned to Love the Mac
- NASA Says: Please Don't Touch Our Stuff When You Go to the Moon
- SpaceX Dragon Successfully Captured by International Space Station
- Backpack Radar Can Detect Ambushers Within 150 Acres
- This Summer, Take a Class on How to Design a Space Hotel
- Today in Good Reads: A Q&A With a Military Bioethicist
- Magnetic Jet Injection Device Can Shoot Any Drug Through the Skin, No Needle Required
- Video: In Record-Breaking Parachuteless Skydive, Man Jumps 2,400 Feet Into a Pile of Boxes
- Video: Paratrooping Roomba-Style Drone Concept Could Help Clean Oil Spills
- Snazzy All-in-One "Vancouver Poles" to Replace Ugly Urban Forest of Cell Towers and Cables
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
lol on earth it says discovered before 1950
-Knock knock
-Who's there?
-The Doctor.
-Doctor Who?
-Yes
Diggin' the Copernican view of the known universe :P
Um, guys...the map link just leads to a 404 page.
jweier111,
Prior to our cosmos forming and prior to the big bang, that was all there was, just a "404" page. ;)
Don't listen to RicardoMay, a total scam and you will be robbed. It happened to a moron friend of mine. Oh, and Popsci should really screen these spammers!!............and get the links to work.
Are we only tracking a flat disc of information around ourselves or do assume that this should really be an spehere of data? I guess its just reffering to the number of lightyears we can see in any direction? Its the easy things that kill me.
"Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon."
The Earth is the center of our Universe in this map and GOD rules over us all!
@jeier111
Try again, I got there just fine.
Dear person who click on "Reported to site admins". Please do not be offended I mention GOD in my comment. I was really bringing to attention the design of the map. The EARTH is at the center which is an ancient belief system, including the belief in GOD.
It seems nobody notice the EARTH being at the center and are not asking why it is illustrated this way.
They could have easily put the Sun in the center.
I just wonder what the map maker was thinking. This scientist maybe even sneeking in some of his religous point of view, right under our noses.
Do a search on old sea maps and old world maps. You often find the person who created the map, also added much of their own personal belief system with symbols, icons and other things into the map, that had nothing to do with map itself.
So begs the question, did this map maker of this article put anything extra into this map from his belief system?
The Earth is the center of the map because that is where the observers are. This is obvious. We don't look at the universe from anywhere else.
@Aligatorhardt
Yeah but wouldn't it have been better to map out what we know from the perspective of the center of the galaxy? That way we could easily discern how much of the galaxy we know about and how much we have yet to explore. I don't know, maybe that's just my way of thinking about things.
aligatorhardt,
I can see your view. This is a map from the view of humanity and the earth is center simply because it is the one thing we know the most about. Poor Galileo, I suppose despite scientific facts human self wins on this map. You know the Christians of Galileo time period would be so happy. Ta'da!
Oh while you say it is obvious should be in the center; that is really your opinion. Do we know for fact what motivated the map maker in this picture to put earth as center, not unless we ask him?