The Known Universe

That ear­lier bit by the Monty Python folks was fun and gives a gen­eral idea of how big ‘every­thing out there is’ and how small a part of it we are.  Here is another view based on the lat­est infor­ma­tion avail­able.  Put together by the Amer­i­can Museum of Nat­ural His­tory, I find it very dra­matic.  I wanted to share it with you.

The Known Uni­verse takes view­ers from the Himalayas through our atmos­phere and the inky black of space to the after­glow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is pos­si­ble because of the world’s most com­plete four-dimensional map of the uni­verse, the Dig­i­tal Uni­verse Atlas that is main­tained and updated by astro­physi­cists at the Amer­i­can Museum of Nat­ural His­tory. This new film updates an ear­lier ver­sion, was cre­ated by the Museum, is part of an exhi­bi­tion called Visions of the Cos­mos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolv­ing Uni­verse, and is show­ing at the Rubin Museum of Art in Man­hat­tan through May 2010.

Here’s the video.  You might need to wait a bit for it to fully load:

For more infor­ma­tion visit http://​www​.amnh​.org