There’s a tremendous amount of information available about the universe, so much so that it’s a feat to even comprehend how much scientists have documented. In 1946, we saw the very first photograph from outer space; 70 years later, we have images of over 5,500 different galaxies courtesy of the Hubble Telescope. Artist Pablo Carlos Budassi created a gorgeous graphic that makes sense of the shear size of the cosmos and the scope of what we know.
Click for a larger version.Pablo Carlos Budassi via Wikipedia.org
To produce the image, Budassi began with logarithmic maps from Princeton. A logarithmic scale increases by orders of magnitude, which makes it useful a useful tool for communicating large numbers and, in this case, the enormity of the universe. The Princeton maps are somewhat dry visually, so Budassi pumped them up with NASA photography. He placed the sun in the center, then our planets, then the Milky Way, a ring of other galaxies, and finally halos of radiation and plasma from the Big Bang.
One can only imagine what an infographic of the final frontier will look like in another 70 years (mind blowing, no doubt).
[via Colossal]
[Illustration: Pablo Carlos Budassi via Wikipedia.org]
