Scientists have recorded two million distant galaxies, quasars and stars for the first time, as part of an initiative to create a detailed three-dimensional map of the universe.
The study, which uses robotics to capture thousands of photographs of the night sky, will further improve our understanding of the universe and our own galaxy – the Milky Way.
Scientists from the UK's Durham University and an international team of academics are studying extragalactic bodies and how their bodies break down into different color wavelengths that reveal the rate at which the universe is expanding, as well as the physical characteristics of galaxies and quasars.
The first round of data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has been released.
Comprised of 80 terabytes, it contains more than 3,5 thousand images of the night sky over a period of six months.
The data is the first step towards mapping more than 40 million galaxies, quasars and stars.
Professor Carlos Frenk of Durham, a member of DESI's international board, said it was "the most ambitious undertaking yet to find answers to some of the most fundamental questions in science – what is our universe made of? How did it become what it is?" "What does the future bring?"
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