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Aug282010

The known Universe

The video, created for the new Rubin Art Museum exhibit Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, uses over a decade of data collected by researchers at the planetarium. Called the Digital Universe Atlas, the data encompasses the precise location of every object ever observed in the sky. From quasars to pulsars to black holes to nebulas, it's all there.

The observable universe spans 13.7 billion light years, with the background radiation aftershock of the Big Bang as the oldest, and farthest, signal. At that end of the universe lies the oldest material in creation, which, thanks to billions of years of expansion, has accelerated to almost the speed of light. That layer forms an event horizon past which not even light can travel, ringing our universe in what is essentially an inside out black hole.

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