Smithsonian Science reports on the most complete map of local galaxies compiled thus far – in galactic terms local means within 380 million light years of us.
Astronomers at the University of Portsmouth, England spent 10 years scanning the entire sky in infra-red wavelengths with two telescopes: Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, Arizona, and one at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Apparently, one of the most notable aspects of the survey is the number of objects measured near the galactic plane – normally hidden by the dust of the Milky Way – Which should help in better understanding the gravitational affect they have on the motion of our galaxy.
The Smithsonian Institution has a massive 4000px wide version of the map online: 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS). In case you don’t already know, the farthest galaxies have the largest redshifts.
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