The most detailed 3D map of the Universe ever made

A survey of the southern sky has reconstructed how mass is spread across space and time in the biggest study of its kind. Cosmologists observed the sky between 2013 and 2019 using a 570-megapixel camera at the Víctor M. Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The resulting 3D cosmic map provides a record of the Universe’s history. By tracking how galaxies spread out over time, researchers can measure the forces at play. These include the gravitational pull of dark matter — the invisible stuff that constitutes some 80% of the Universe’s mass — and dark energy, the mysterious force that appears to be pushing the Universe to accelerate its expansion.