The DESI legacy imaging survey releases the largest 2D map of the universe

The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys have released the largest 2D map of the universe, containing nearly 4 billion celestial objects and covering 75% of the sky in visible and near-infrared light. The map, which includes stars, galaxies, black holes, and asteroids, is the result of over 160 scientists contributing to the project, including those from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey, Mayall z-band Legacy Survey, and Beijing-Arizona Sky Survey. The data were gathered by the Dark Energy Camera, the Mayall 4-meter Telescope, and the Steward Observatory's 2.3-meter Telescope. The map is available through the Legacy Survey Sky Viewer and is part of the fabric of astronomy research.

The 11th data release (DR 11) of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys provides the largest-ever 2D map of the universe, with 5.6 trillion pixels and 4 billion celestial objects. The map is a culmination of the project's efforts, which have mapped over 47 million galaxies and quasars in the local universe out to 11 billion light-years. The data were collected using multiple telescopes and instruments, including the Dark Energy Camera and the Mayall 4-meter Telescope. The map enables DESI to measure the light of objects at different wavelengths to determine their distances, which is essential for creating the largest high-resolution 3D map of the universe.

The map is part of the DESI's 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which will generate about 10 terabytes of data every night, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is expected to generate 20 petabytes of data. The map will help scientists study dark energy, gravitational lenses, transient events like supernovae, fast radio bursts, and gamma-ray bursts. It will also help train machine learning and AI tools to analyze petabytes of astronomical data. The map is available as a searchable database via the Astro Data Lab at the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC).

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