Uploaded April 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago

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There are close to 400,000 galaxies in the animation, each containing between 100 billion and 400 billion stars. The images of the actual galaxies in these positions derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7. As vast as this slice of space seems, it only corresponds to a small fraction of the known universe.

This animated flight was made by Miguel Aragon and Alex Szalay of Johns Hopkins University with Mark Subbarao of the Adler Planetarium.

For more information about BOSS and the latest data release, go to newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2012/08/08/boss-sdss-dr9

Thanks to BestofScience for adding the soundtrack to the video.

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Music: The Cinematic Orchestra - "Arrival of the Birds"


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