In an effort to understand it, scientists are planning to make the largest 3D map

為了瞭解它，科學家們正計劃製作最大規模的3D地圖。

of the universe to date. But before the galaxies can be plotted in three dimensions,

迄今為止，宇宙的。但在繪製星系三維圖之前。

researchers had to capture an enormous area in 2D.

研究人員不得不用2D捕捉一個巨大的區域。

The result is the largest image of the night sky ever. And you can see the whole thing online.

結果是有史以來最大的夜空影像。而且你可以在網上看到整個過程。

It's hard to overstate just how impressive this single image is.

這張單張圖片有多麼令人印象深刻，都不為過。

And the longer you look at it, the more you appreciate all of the

你看的時間越長，你就越能體會到所有的。

work it must have taken to make the whole thing possible.

它必須採取的工作，使整個事情成為可能。

It captures half of the sky

它能捕捉到一半的天空

and more than a billion galaxies, depicted through over 10 trillion pixels.

和超過10億個星系，通過超過10萬億個像素描繪出來。

Do you take a lot of pictures on your phone? Are you always running out of space for selfies or cat photos?

你在手機上拍了很多照片嗎？你是否總是沒有空間放自拍或貓咪照片？

Well, in order to create a 10 trillion pixel image, you would have to stitch together 833,000

為了創建一個10萬億像素的影像 你得把833,000個像素拼接起來。

smartphone photos. Creating this map took more than 1,400 observing nights at three telescopes

智能手機照片。製作這張地圖需要在三臺望遠鏡上進行1400多個觀測夜晚。

over the course of six years.

在六年的時間裡，。

Completely covering half the sky was a huge logistical challenge for the 200 researchers

對200名研究人員來說，完全覆蓋半邊天是一個巨大的後勤挑戰。

involved in the project. For the telescopes to take the best images possible, the team

參與項目。為了讓望遠鏡拍攝到儘可能好的影像，該團隊

had to consider hours of darkness, weather, exposure time, the paths of planets and satellites,

必須考慮到黑暗時間、天氣、曝光時間、行星和衛星的路徑。

the moon's brightness and location—the list goes on.

月亮的亮度和位置--不勝枚舉。

Even with all those variables factored in, there was still the matter of creating

即使考慮到所有這些變量，仍然有創建

one homogeneous image. It's not as simple as just stitching them all together—the scientists

一個同質的影像。這不是簡單地將它們拼接在一起那麼簡單--科學家們。

needed a way to minimize distortions caused by weather and atmospheric turbulence.

需要一種方法來減少天氣和大氣湍流造成的扭曲。

To do this they used supercomputers to compare their images with past sky surveys and select the

為此，他們使用超級計算機將其影像與過去的天空測量進行比較，並選擇了。

ones that most closely matched. Once they had the most accurate and uniform pictures

最匹配的。一旦他們有了最準確、最統一的圖片

possible, they put them together and this is the result.

可能，他們把它們放在一起，這就是結果。

Taking in the two billion objects sprinkled over such an enormous backdrop can be a bit

在這樣一個巨大的背景下，欣賞20億個物體，可能會有點

overwhelming. To make navigating the stars more user-friendly, the researchers adapted

壓倒性的。為了使導航星空更加方便用戶，研究人員對其進行了調整

street-mapping software to suit their needs. They created a tool called the Legacy Sky Survey Viewer.

街道地圖軟件，以滿足他們的需求。他們創建了一個名為Legacy Sky Survey Viewer的工具。

Users can jump to an object if they know its name, or toggle filters to

如果用戶知道一個對象的名字，就可以跳轉到該對象，或者將過濾器切換到

help find specific object types. They can also turn on overlays to see constellations,

幫助尋找特定的物體類型。他們還可以打開覆蓋圖來查看星座。

or which galaxies the researchers plan to further study for the 3D map.

或研究人員計劃進一步研究哪些星系的3D地圖。

While the navigation tool was originally designed to help researchers more easily find issues with their data, the

雖然導航工具最初的設計是為了幫助研究人員更容易地找到數據中的問題，但該導航工具的設計是為了幫助研究人員更容易地找到數據中的問題。

scientists were surprised at how powerful it was.

科學家們驚訝於它的強大。

One said that suddenly the data just felt a lot more real and it changed the way the

一個人說，突然間，數據就感覺更真實了，它改變了的方式。

team interacted with it. Another researcher figured that if it impacted them so much,

團隊與之互動。另一位研究人員認為，如果對他們影響這麼大。

maybe the public would want to see it too. So they made it available to all of us online,

也許公眾也會想看。所以他們就在網上給我們所有人提供了。

and that means that anyone could potentially discover new examples of rare objects, or

這意味著，任何人都有可能發現新的稀有物品的例子，或。

even entirely new ones. Considering how awe-inspiring this 2D map is, it's amazing to think it's

甚至是全新的。考慮到這張2D地圖是多麼的令人敬畏，它竟然是

a stepping stone to a bigger goal. It was created to identify which galaxies and quasars

是實現更大目標的踏腳石它的建立是為了確定哪些星系和類星體

the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, will survey.

暗能量光譜儀，或DESI，將調查。

This instrument will be able to measure the distances to objects located up to 12 billion

這臺儀器將能夠測量與位於120億以內的物體的距離。

lightyears away. DESI will also measure the redshift of these objects to determine how

光年之外。DESI還將測量這些天體的紅移，以確定這些天體如何

fast they're moving away from us. With this information, astronomers and cosmologists

它們正在快速遠離我們有了這些資訊，天文學家和宇宙學家們...

will be able to create a 3D map of a huge portion of the universe and tease out more

將能夠創建一個巨大的宇宙部分的3D地圖，並挑出更多的。

information about how dark energy shapes the cosmos. If you're like me and plan to set

關於暗能量如何塑造宇宙的資訊。如果你像我一樣，打算在宇宙中設置

aside at least a full day to marvel at this image, just remember that the best may still

至少要留出一整天的時間來讚歎這幅畫，只是要記住，最好的可能仍然是。

be yet to come.

尚未到來。