Mapping The Universe: Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS 2)
Monday, November 20th, 2006
update 22.02.2011: the above image is a still from the below referenced film.
From the SDSS homepage:
SDSS is systematically mapping a quarter of the entire sky, producing a detailed image of it and determining the positions and absolute brightnesses of more than 100 million celestial objects. It is also measuring the distances to a million of the nearest galaxies, giving us a three-dimensional picture of the universe through a volume one hundred times larger than that explored to date. SDSS is also recording the distances to 100,000 quasars — the most distant objects known — giving us unprecedented knowledge of the distribution of matter to the edge of the visible universe.