glenc
12-12-2007, 06:25 AM
This helps to get things in perspective.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0712/lss_2mass_big.jpg
The Universe Nearby
Credit & Copyright: 2MASS (http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/), T. H. Jarrett (http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/), J. Carpenter, & R. Hurt Explanation: What does the universe nearby look like? This plot shows over one and a half million of the brightest stars and galaxies in the nearby universe detected by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/) (2MASS) in infrared light (http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/infrared.html). The resulting image is an incredible tapestry (http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/papers/LSS/) of stars and galaxies that provides limits (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2003ApJ...585..16 1K) on how the universe (http://www.astro.ucla.edu/%7Ewright/cosmolog.htm) formed and evolved (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990905.html). Across the center are stars that lie in the plane (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070930.html) of our own Milky Way Galaxy (http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/Milkyway.html). Away from the Galactic plane, vast majority of the dots are galaxies (http://www.seds.org/messier/galaxy.html), color coded to indicate distance, with blue dots representing the nearest galaxies in the 2Mass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2MASS) survey, and red dots indicating the most distant survey galaxies that lie at a redshift (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshift) near 0.1. Named structures are annotated (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:2MASS_LSS_chart-NEW.jpg). Many galaxies are gravitationally bound (http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/dict_ei.html#gravitationally_bound) together to form clusters (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020203.html), which themselves are loosely bound into superclusters (http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/gclusters/superclusters.html), which in turn are sometimes seen to align over even larger scale structures (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071107.html).
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0712/lss_2mass_big.jpg
The Universe Nearby
Credit & Copyright: 2MASS (http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/), T. H. Jarrett (http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/), J. Carpenter, & R. Hurt Explanation: What does the universe nearby look like? This plot shows over one and a half million of the brightest stars and galaxies in the nearby universe detected by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/) (2MASS) in infrared light (http://imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/infrared.html). The resulting image is an incredible tapestry (http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/papers/LSS/) of stars and galaxies that provides limits (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2003ApJ...585..16 1K) on how the universe (http://www.astro.ucla.edu/%7Ewright/cosmolog.htm) formed and evolved (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990905.html). Across the center are stars that lie in the plane (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070930.html) of our own Milky Way Galaxy (http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/Milkyway.html). Away from the Galactic plane, vast majority of the dots are galaxies (http://www.seds.org/messier/galaxy.html), color coded to indicate distance, with blue dots representing the nearest galaxies in the 2Mass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2MASS) survey, and red dots indicating the most distant survey galaxies that lie at a redshift (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshift) near 0.1. Named structures are annotated (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:2MASS_LSS_chart-NEW.jpg). Many galaxies are gravitationally bound (http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/dict_ei.html#gravitationally_bound) together to form clusters (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020203.html), which themselves are loosely bound into superclusters (http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/gclusters/superclusters.html), which in turn are sometimes seen to align over even larger scale structures (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071107.html).