Astronomers Have Completed the Largest Map of Space. Yes, You Can Play With It.
Astronomers Have Completed the Largest Map of Space. Yes, You Can Play With It.
天文学家完成了史上最大的太空地图，而且你也可以亲自探索
The driving force behind our universe’s accelerated expansion remains one of the greatest mysteries in astronomy. While this force, which scientists refer to as dark energy, pervades our universe, we know almost nothing about it.
推动宇宙加速膨胀的驱动力，至今仍是天文学界最大的谜团之一。尽管这种被科学家称为“暗能量”的力量充斥着整个宇宙，但我们对它几乎一无所知。
Located on a remote mountain in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has spent the past five years mapping the cosmos with the goal of unraveling this mystery. The result is the largest three-dimensional map of the universe ever created. And now—with the release of the latest version of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, a free online tool for exploring the vast imaging data—you too can poke around the universe.
暗能量光谱仪（DESI）位于亚利桑那州索诺兰沙漠的一座偏远山脉上，在过去五年里，它一直致力于绘制宇宙地图，旨在揭开这一谜团。其成果是人类有史以来创建的最大的三维宇宙地图。现在，随着最新版“DESI遗产成像巡天”（DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys）的发布——这是一个用于探索海量成像数据的免费在线工具——你也可以亲自探索宇宙。
The new map boasts an overwhelming amount of information: 5.6 trillion pixels containing approximately 4 billion celestial objects including stars, galaxies, black holes, and asteroids. It covers approximately 75 percent of the entire sky, recording both visible light and near-infrared wavelengths.
这张新地图拥有惊人的信息量：5.6万亿像素，包含了约40亿个天体，包括恒星、星系、黑洞和小行星。它覆盖了约75%的夜空，记录了可见光和近红外波段的数据。
Those missing pieces include the deeper parts of space blocked by the stars, space dust, and other matter in our own galaxy, which is a major challenge for astronomy surveys, especially ground-based ones. However, since the Milky Way is splayed out like a fried egg—which is why it appears as a dense band of stars in the night sky—the researchers aim DESI’s 5,000 mechanical eyes out of the top or bottom of our galaxy to capture some of the clearest images of distant space yet.
那些缺失的部分包括被我们银河系内的恒星、太空尘埃和其他物质遮挡的深空区域，这对天文巡天（尤其是地面观测）来说是一个重大挑战。然而，由于银河系的形状像一个煎蛋（这也是它在夜空中呈现为一条密集恒星带的原因），研究人员将DESI的5000只“机械眼”对准银河系的顶部或底部，从而捕捉到了迄今为止最清晰的一些深空图像。
A galaxy cluster located in the constellation Leo, affectionately known as “Copeland’s Septuplets.” Photograph: DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys/LBNL/DOE & KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
位于狮子座的一个星系团，被亲切地称为“科普兰七胞胎”（Copeland’s Septuplets）。图片来源：DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys/LBNL/DOE & KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Though this particular survey lasted five years, it built on another 13 years of groundwork. More than 160 scientists were involved in data collection, and over the course of the project, researchers have already published upwards of 1,800 scientific papers referencing the data.
虽然这项特定的巡天项目持续了五年，但它建立在另外13年的基础工作之上。超过160名科学家参与了数据收集工作，在项目进行期间，研究人员已经发表了超过1800篇引用这些数据的科学论文。
“It’s part of the fabric of astronomy research now,” David Schlegel, a researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and co-lead of the Legacy Surveys, said in a press release. “When you’re working with astronomical objects today, you often start by pulling up the Legacy Imaging Viewer to see what you’re looking at.”
“它现在已经成为天文学研究结构的一部分，”劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室的研究员、“遗产巡天”项目的共同负责人大卫·施莱格尔（David Schlegel）在新闻发布会上表示，“如今当你研究天体时，通常第一步就是打开‘遗产成像查看器’（Legacy Imaging Viewer）来看看你正在观察的对象。”
Earlier this year, DESI researchers released another map, which projected the distances of 47 million galaxies and quasars. This reconstructed 11 billion years of cosmic history, bringing the effects of dark energy into focus. Dark energy is thought to be responsible for the expansion of our universe, and while the force itself remains elusive, astronomers can track it by analyzing the rates at which other celestial objects appear to be moving away from us.
今年早些时候，DESI的研究人员发布了另一张地图，测绘了4700万个星系和类星体的距离。这重构了110亿年的宇宙历史，使暗能量的影响变得清晰可见。暗能量被认为是导致宇宙膨胀的原因，虽然这种力量本身仍然难以捉摸，但天文学家可以通过分析其他天体远离我们的速度来追踪它。
Data from the first three years of DESI’s survey—combined with observations of supernovae and the pervasive radiation leftover from the Big Bang—have hinted that dark energy may not be a constant force but is gradually weakening over time. An analysis of the full five years of data is scheduled to be released in 2027, which scientists believe will paint a picture of the past and present of the universe more vividly than ever before.
DESI巡天前三年的数据，结合对超新星的观测以及大爆炸留下的弥漫辐射，暗示暗能量可能并非一种恒定的力量，而是在随时间逐渐减弱。对完整五年数据的分析预计将于2027年发布，科学家们相信，这将比以往任何时候都更生动地描绘出宇宙的过去与现在。
Going forward, DESI’s observations will also serve as a reference and comparison point for other cosmic projects, such as NASA’s recently launched Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Researchers also plan to train artificial intelligence tools to accelerate analysis of the petabyte-scale astronomical data—within which much remains to be discovered.
展望未来，DESI的观测结果还将作为其他宇宙项目的参考和对比点，例如美国国家航空航天局（NASA）最近发射的南希·格蕾丝·罗曼太空望远镜（Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope）。研究人员还计划训练人工智能工具，以加速对PB级天文数据的分析——其中仍有许多奥秘等待被发现。
“Explorations of our universe always start with images of the night sky,” said Arjun Day, co-director of Legacy Surveys and an astronomer with the National Science Foundation. “These data are fundamental to the investigation of the expansion history of the universe and the formation of our galaxy. But the skies belong to everyone, and this survey gives everyone the chance to marvel at their wonders.”
“对宇宙的探索总是始于夜空的图像，”遗产巡天项目联席主任、美国国家科学基金会天文学家阿琼·戴（Arjun Day）说，“这些数据对于研究宇宙的膨胀历史和我们银河系的形成至关重要。但天空属于每一个人，这项巡天项目让每个人都有机会惊叹于它的奇迹。”