Interactive map of the early universe is considered largest ever created
A team of astronomers have put together the largest, most detailed map of the universe ever created – and you can explore it now.
The interactive online map, created using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, details some 800,000 galaxies across a vast cosmic distance – which in astronomy amounts to peering back in time. In fact, some of the galaxies are so far away, they appear as they existed not long after the Big Bang.
Depicting a section of the universe known as the COSMOS-Web field, the new map is far more expansive than even the iconic Hubble Ultra Deep Field, a view of 10,000 galaxies NASA released in 2004.
Spanning nearly all of cosmic time, the new map has the potential to challenge existing notions of the infant universe, the astronomers who created it claimed in a press release.
The best part? The interactive map is available for the public to use.
A team of international scientists who are part of the Cosmic Evolution Survey program (COSMOS) created and released the map of the universe Thursday, June 5.
Compiled from more than 10,000 images of COSMOS-Web – the largest observing program of James Webb Space Telescope's first year in orbit – the map covers about three times as much space as the moon takes up when viewed from Earth. That makes it the largest contiguous image available from Webb, according to the Rochester Institute of Technology, whose Jeyhan Kartaltepe is a lead researcher on the project.
An intricate astral tapestry, the map gives stargazers digital views of the ancient cosmos in unprecedented detail and breadth. Scrolling and zooming in can take users some 13.5 billion years back in time when the universe was in its infancy and stars, galaxies and black holes were still forming.
'If you had a printout of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field on a standard piece of paper, our image would be slightly larger than a 13-foot by 13-foot-wide mural, at the same depth," Caitlin Casey, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara and co-lead for the COSMOS project, said in a statement. "It's really strikingly large.'
Explore the interactive map .
Using its powerful resolution and infrared capabilities, the James Webb Space Telescope observed a region of space known as the COSMOS-web field, which scientists have been surveying for years.
The raw data from the COSMOS field observations was made publicly available once it was collected by Webb, but that didn't mean it was easily accessible. That's why the COSMOS project spent two years creating the map from Webb's raw data to make it more digestible for amateur astronomers, researchers and even the general public.
"In releasing the data to the public, the hope is that other astronomers from all over the world will use it to, among other things, further refine our understanding of how the early universe was populated and how everything evolved to the present day," according to a statement from UC Santa Barbara.
The James Webb Space Telescope, which launched in 2021, far surpasses the abilities of the Hubble Space Telescope, launched 35 years ago in 1990.
Orbiting the sun rather than Earth, the Webb is outfitted with a gold-coated mirror and powerful infrared instruments to observe the cosmos like no instrument before. Since reaching the cosmos, Webb has not only facilitated countless scientific breakthroughs in astrophysics, but it also has produced gorgeous images of planets and other celestial objects, including star-forming regions.
In March, NASA also deployed into orbit its SPHEREx telescope to collect data on more than 450 million galaxies. Scientists say the SPHEREx observatory will be able to get a wider view of the galaxy – identifying objects of scientific interest that telescopes like Hubble and Webb can then study up close.
SPHEREx became operational in May, constantly snapping images of the cosmos.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Astronomers release largest interactive map of universe: Check it out
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
33 minutes ago
- Forbes
Targeting The Heart With AI
Cardiologist doctor examine patient heart functions and blood vessel on virtual interface. Medical ... More technology and healthcare treatment to diagnose heart disorder and disease of cardiovascular system. It's one thing to talk about what AI will do in healthcare – they use cases and applications that will change the face of that field. It's something else to describe how this will happen – how the body's systems interact with the technology in ways that can, frankly, be pretty amazing. Our bodies are immensely complex – very sophisticated machines with literally dozens of functional systems put together in a unified whole. That's not to mention the immense structure of the human brain, which Marvin Minsky famously characterized as hundreds of machines working together in his Society of the Mind book, as well as his legacy of work at MIT. Complex Systems in Human Biology Just take the heart – the body's largest muscle, and responsible for keeping us alive by pumping blood through the body in particular ways. With its multiple chambers, its complex system of veins and arteries, its electrical impulses and more, the heart is in some ways enigmatic and difficult for clinicians to work on. The gold standard for cardiac evaluation is the EKG; at least, it has been for decades. But what if AI and other technologies could find new ways of getting cardiac information, and new ways of diagnosing and processing it for patient care? The Equipment of Cardiology Recently, my colleague, Daniela Rus, director of the MIT CSAIL lab, interviewed SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary at Imagination in Action this spring. They talked about specifically that: how quantum technology and artificial intelligence could be used to innovate heart care. Prior to that, though, Hidary talked about other medical use cases, pointing out, for example, that 85% of clinical trials fail, and that specific strategies with AI can save enormous amounts of time and money in looking at how proteins bind to receptors, or other outcomes. A Quick Glossary Prior to going into the specifics of new AI heart treatment Hidary referenced CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) which is a parallel computing platform created by NVIDIA that allows developers to use some of the company's hardware for general-purpose and scientific computing. That's going to be relevant here. He also talks about tensors, in aid of explaining how teams can 'put quantum on GPUs' - he also mentioned quantum sensors, which are new ways to gather information by using quantum science for precision in data handling. That's where this theory on cardiology care comes in. Replacing the EKG The EKG assesses the electric field of the heart. A new quantum and AI method, Hidary suggested, would instead focus on the magnetic field of the heart. This could come through the body in a very direct and full way, in order to provide better and more detailed data. Think of it as a type of lossless signal compression that will deliver better data to cardiac assessment. 'This is something that is melding AI and quantum together,' he said. 'You can't do one without the other.' Here's how he described the process: 'Your skin conductance is very indirectly related to your heart,' Hidary said. 'Those wires (in the new system) are not on your heart itself. They're on your skin, but the magnetic field comes through the cavity of the body, undisturbed, unperturbed, intact in 360 degrees, (in data) around us that is a beautiful, pristine, high-density information view of the heart, unlike the EKG, which is very indirect and often has many false positives and many, many false negatives.' In listening to Hidary talk, you get the idea that we may be on the verge of revolutionary new kinds of heart treatments that rely on the intersection of quantum and AI to see what's really happening inside of a person's body. More on Heart Care This resource from Campanile Cardiology talks about changing care from reactive to proactive, and using pattern recognition and predictive power for early detection. The author also covers efforts to figure out the heart's 'real age' or biological age based on conditions like plaque buildup. Or you can take this set of predictions from JACC, notwithstanding the medical-ese in which they're written: · AI-enabled technologies are increasingly integrated into cardiovascular practice and investigation. · Over the next decade, we envision an AI-propelled future in which the cardiovascular diagnostic and therapeutic landscape will effectively leverage multimodal data at the point of care. · Innovations in biomedical discovery and cardiovascular research are also set to make the future of cardiovascular care more personalized, precise, and effective. · The path to this future requires equitable and regulated adoption that prioritizes fairness, equity, safety, and partnerships with innovators as well as our communities and society. In any case, it looks like we are close to unlocking new types of healthcare with the technologies at our disposal. And these are brand new. Five years ago, ten years ago, nobody was writing about these things, because they didn't functionally exist. What we've discovered is a new expanse of uncharted waters. That's going to keep us busy for quite a while.
Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
How to Slow Down Your Biological Clock
Death is inevitable. But the journey getting there is far from universal. The average life expectancy at birth worldwide is now around 73 years but varies widely between countries and even between individual states in America. I, and presumably many readers, know some people who have barely lost a step as they've gotten older, as well as people who sharply declined as they entered their golden years. These realities invite the question: How can we significantly slow down our biological clock? And will we get any closer to a fountain of youth in the near future? There's some good and bad news. First, the bad news. There's probably a hard limit to our longevity. A study last year found that, while life expectancy has continued to grow pretty much everywhere since the start of the 20th century, the rate of increase has substantially sunk in the U.S. and other high-income countries over the past 30 years. Only around 3% of women and 1% of men in the U.S. today are even expected to reach 100. This and other research suggests that radical life extension is off the table, at least for the foreseeable future. Will the Average Human Life Expectancy Ever Reach 100? Not all hope is lost, though. Many researchers in the aging field have started to call for a new perspective. Rather than simply focus on extending our lifespan, they argue, we should also work to improve our healthspan—the years of relatively good health we have left in our hourglass. This isn't a strict distinction. Research on the oldest known humans has found they're generally healthier than the average person throughout their lives. But there are also people who still die in their 70s or 80s while experiencing few of the chronic health issues that commonly plague their peers beforehand. The good news is that there are several evidence-backed ways to boost or maintain our health as we age. Many of these shouldn't come as a surprise, like physical activity. Any amount and form of exercise, whether it's jogging, weightlifting, or flexibility training, is good for you, no matter your age. 'There is no question that regular exercise is associated with improved lifespan and healthy lifestyle,' Sanjai Sinha, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the Mount Sinai Health System and a physician at The Health Center at Hudson Yards, told Gizmodo. 'There are data that link exercise to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases.' Want to Know How Well You're Aging? Try Standing on One Leg Diet, too, plays a pivotal role in slowing the clock. Many different diets have been linked to longevity and general health, but the most consistent, according to Sinha, is the Mediterranean diet. This diet encourages eating plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, olive oil, a moderate consumption of fish and poultry, and limited intake of red and processed meats, refined sugars, and saturated fats. A 2023 review of 40 clinical trials found the Mediterranean diet outperformed six other diets in prolonging life among people with higher cardiovascular risk. There are also things we can avoid or at least moderate our intake of to extend our lives. Smoking, heavy alcohol drinking (the data is more uncertain with light to moderate drinking), and sedentary behavior have all been linked to a shorter life. That some unknown or unexpected health risks could likewise drain our lifespan complicates the picture even further. A study just this week found a possible connection between faster aging and frequent nightmares, for instance. There's still a lot we don't know about the biology of aging, and we know even less when it comes to slowing it down therapeutically. Sure, you can browse online pharmacies and store shelves and spot dozens of supplements or other products that claim to have anti-aging effects, but upon closer inspection, the data supporting these claims is generally spotty or very preliminary. Just this month, NIH scientists failed to find evidence that aging is linked to declining levels of taurine, a semi-essential amino acid commonly sold as a supplement, contrary to earlier research. 'While they may have positive impacts on certain genes and proteins that have been linked with aging, these supplements have not been proven in any well-designed human trials to prolong lifespan,' Sinha said. 'I don't believe any of these products or substances stand out over the rest.' Longevity-Obsessed Tech Millionaire Discontinues De-Aging Drug Out of Concerns That It Aged Him This doesn't mean there aren't any promising longevity drugs in the works. Last year, a nationwide study of 3,000 people over 65 began testing metformin—a long-used, vital type 2 diabetes medication—for longevity (the trial is expected to end by 2030). Rapamycin, a drug used to prevent organ rejection, is also being studied in trials for anti-aging and age-related disorders. And longevity researchers like Anthony Molina, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego's School of Medicine, are hopeful that we will find genuine successes among some of these trials soon enough. 'Such clinical trials are made possible by advances in the development of biomarkers of biological aging, which can be assessed in coordination with functional/clinical outcomes reporting on health status across ages,' Molina, also the scientific director for the Stein Institute for Research on Aging and the Center for Healthy Aging, told Gizmodo. 'I anticipate that over the next few years, we will tease apart what actually works and what is not supported by data in humans.' Scientists are also continuing to make new discoveries about the biological drivers of aging. Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, for instance, have been studying a trait they've coined 'immune resilience'—the immune system's ability to fend off infections and other real threats without causing too much unneeded inflammation. In a study this April, they found that middle-aged people with the best immune resilience may have a 15-year survival advantage over those with the poorest. 'Inflammation is absolutely essential, but it has to be in the right place, the right amount, the right kind, and the right duration,' senior study researcher Sunil Ahuja, a professor of medicine at UT Health San Antonio and director of the Veterans Affairs Center for Personalized Medicine with the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, told Gizmodo. Broadly recommended lifestyle habits like exercise and a healthy diet are associated with immune resilience, Ahuja notes. But he's hopeful that someday, doctors can provide personalized therapies that boost a person's resilience and, likewise, maintain their healthy aging. With enough detailed analysis of people's genetics, metabolism, microbiomes, and other innate characteristics, he argues, it'll be possible to craft the ideal health-extending diets or preventive medicines for an individual person, similar to the way doctors can now modify cancer treatment based on a tumor's unique makeup. We're not quite there yet, of course. But here's some added incentive for being hopeful: optimism itself seems to help you live longer and healthier. 'People often ask me what would be a magical food, a superfood. And I'd say that an actual superfood is your attitude, your mindset. There are people who look at life and their stresses in a positive manner. And when they do, we think—based on data we and others have developed—that they maintain, if you will, somewhat of an anti-inflammatory state,' Ahuja said. No one lives forever. But there's a lot we can do to make our time here as pleasant and healthy as possible. With any luck, plenty more tips and tricks for longevity will emerge in our lifetimes.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Ex-NASA Chief Sounds Alarm Over Space Agency's Future
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The former head of NASA has said that the space agency is "being savaged," in response to proposed cuts by the Trump administration. Bill Nelson, NASA administrator from 2021 to 2025, said: "If they continue on the path that they're on, it will be a crippled agency." NASA has been working on plans to bring astronauts back to the moon for the first time since 1972 with the Artemis program, and to build the Lunar Gateway space station on the moon for long-term lunar scientific exploration. These plans are now on hold amid a proposed Republican budget that would cut as much as half of NASA's science funding. President Donald Trump's budget request to NASA, which must be debated by Congress before October 1, called for the agency to "terminate unaffordable missions," cut "woke" education programs and implement a "more sustainable, cost-effective approach to lunar exploration." Overall, the budget proposes reducing the agency's annual budget from $24.9 billion to $18.8 billion. Newsweek has contacted NASA for comment via email outside of working hours. The Mary W. Jackson headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. The Mary W. Jackson headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo Why It Matters The Trump administration says that the proposed reductions are necessary to rein in excessive spending, eliminate underperforming projects, and reorient NASA toward more cost-efficient private partnerships. The White House has highlighted examples such as the $4 billion-per-launch cost of the Space Launch System, NASA's expendable heavy-lift rocket. Critics say the proposed budget cuts threaten American progress in space and in scientific endeavor more broadly. In parallel, the administration has proposed eliminating climate satellite projects. Previous scientific cuts by the Trump administration include Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. firing vaccine advisers from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a decrease in grants for scientific research. What To Know Cuts to NASA are creating "chaos" and will likely have "significant impacts to our leadership in space," a Democratic House staffer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Sunday Times, a U.K. newspaper. NASA's Artemis project was launched during the first Trump administration and has already cost more than $26 billion for the new Space Launch System. Cutting NASA's budget would also heavily impact space science across Europe, as NASA has partnerships with the European Space Agency (ESA), which was collaborating with NASA and Airbus to build part of the new rockets to the moon and a Gateway space station. This collaboration, which has already cost ESA €840 million in Airbus payments and another €650 million in future Airbus contracts, was supposed to result in three European astronauts going on the new lunar mission. The future of this plan is uncertain. Elon Musk's space exploration company SpaceX still works with NASA, including on lunar exploration. However, he left the federal government and has criticized budget cuts amid a rift with Trump. The future of SpaceX's partnership with NASA is now also uncertain. "The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts," Trump wrote on Truth Social in June. What People Are Saying Bill Nelson told reporters at a POLITICO summit: "That's like eating our seed corn. We're not going to have anything to plant next year in the quest of trying to understand what is part of the statutes for NASA, which is to search for life, and therefore to understand who we are, what we are, and where we are." Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro in a statement in May: "This proposal includes investments to simultaneously pursue exploration of the Moon and Mars while still prioritizing critical science and technology research. I appreciate the President's continued support for NASA's mission and look forward to working closely with the administration and Congress to ensure we continue making progress toward achieving the impossible." The White House in a statement in May: "The Budget phases out the grossly expensive and delayed Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule after three flights. SLS alone costs $4 billion per launch and is 140 percent over budget. The Budget funds a program to replace SLS and Orion flights to the Moon with more cost-effective commercial systems that would support more ambitious subsequent lunar missions." Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA director of human and robotic exploration, quoted in The Sunday Times: "We want to work on reducing the risks of the projects where we are dependent on US decisions. We want to increase the projects which are done in autonomy, where we are the masters of the decisions we take." What Happens Next ESA leaders are looking to work on projects that do not rely on American money or American political decision-makers, turning to work with India and Japan, and possibly even China, instead. Senator Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Commerce Committee which oversees NASA's budget, has supported Artemis in the past, so it is not certain that NASA's budget will be cut by as much as the Trump administration's proposal by the October 1 deadline.
