Astronomers at the Australian National University have just released the most comprehensive map of the southern sky , which let in over 300 million star and galaxies in 70,000 individual images .
The data collected to create the map can be accessed by everyone worldwide via theSkyMapperproject site and the images can be all seen in the usefulSky Viewer , so you could explore the southern sky from the ease of your own home .
" The single-valued function of the southerly sky we ’ve let go to the world today is the good ever create , but this is only the beginning of a five - year program to capture it in all its splendour , " leading researcher Dr Christian Wolf from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics , suppose in astatement .
While this is the best map so far , it is not the end result for the SkyMapper telescope , which sports an impressive 270 - megapixel television camera . Its last map will include objects that are a million fourth dimension fainter than the faintest objective visible to the bare center . It will also be a immense improvement to the current , already telling , mathematical function .
" The final map will show sensation and galaxies that are up to 50 time fainter than the limit of this map , " Dr Wolf added .
former release information from SkyMapper has already contributed to many breakthrough , like for representative the observation of theoldest starin the creation . The new available dataset will definitely allow us to distinguish more intriguing and hopefully record - break away objects .
" SkyMapper ’s special filter probe lighter across a range of colours beyond what the human middle can see , arrive at into the near - ultraviolet illumination and the near - infrared , " added co - researcher Dr Christopher Onken also from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics .
" This abundant vividness information is crucially significant to explore for astronomic ' needles in the haystack ' among the vast number of stars in this map . "
The SkyMapper projection is fund by the Australian Research Council and it will image the southerly sky with its six spectral filters over the course of five year . It is expected to have a humongous 1 billion discovered objects by the time the final mathematical function is sack .
