Largest-ever map of universe is as big as a 13x13 feet mural, with 800,000 galaxies

The Print

4 hours ago

What is striking about the map is its gigantic size and scale. If the Hubble telescope image of the universe is printed on a sheet of A4-size paper, the new map would be a 13-foot by 13-foot mural, said a scientist associated with the COSMOS project . Released by NASA in 2004, the Hubble image, encompassing 10,000 galaxies, had remained the most in-demand image of the universe before the release of the COSMOS map.
A team of 200 researchers from over 12 countries came together for an international project and created the COSMOS map with data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The scientists have made the raw data from the telescope publicly accessible to every student, researcher and scientist.
New Delhi: On 5 June, scientists unveiled the COSMOS map, the largest map of our universe to date, encompassing 800,000 galaxies.
Not only does the COSMOS map provide in-depth imagery of the universe, but it also challenges several notions. For instance, the number of early galaxies that existed in the universe, considering the ones captured on the COSMOS map. With the map made public, the scientists hope it will encourage more research on the universe.
Increase in captive lions in Thailand
A new study by Oxford Brookes University and Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand tracking the number of captive lions in Thailand from 2018 to 2024 has found an increase from 131 to 444 lions, marking a threefold rise in just six years.
The study has pointed out that the trend is worrying, especially in the context of white lions. Of the 101 cubs born every year in captivity in Thailand, white lions accounted for 45%. In zoos and parks, white lions are considered a Thai speciality, but their colour is due to a recessive gene caused by inbreeding.
The study has found more lions in captivity in private homes and zoos since the Thailand Wild Animal Preservation and Protection Act of 2019 came into force. It has also noted an unregulated increase in breeding among the big cats in captivity, further increasing their number—a trend detrimental to lion conservation.
The study has called for improved legislation and stricter enforcement of laws that ban keeping lions captive in private homes and ensure the safety of the already-captive lions.
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Natural history museums & pollution studies
A paper released on 30 May by the University of Texas, Arlington, stands out for the new way it has found to track the history of environmental pollution—museum specimens. According to the paper, natural history specimens such as preserved birds and fish can act as time capsules, helping scientists trace pollution trends over the past 200 years. The specimens, they have found, often store traces of pollutants such as metals and soot from the environments around them.
The researchers could detect pollution from eras long before modern monitoring tools existed by analysing the feathers, tissues, and dust on old bird skins. An example in the paper was of a field sparrow specimen from the Rust Belt region of the US from 1906. It was coated in black soot from coal-burning industries, whereas another field sparrow specimen from 1996 was relatively clean. The difference was a visual of how air quality has changed over time.
The authors have argued in the paper that their discovery opens up a whole new arena of research on the environment and the history of pollution.
Early cancer detection in bloodstream
Cancer, a new study by Johns Hopkins University has revealed, can be detected years before its diagnosis. Scientists involved in the research have shown that studying genetic material that tumours shed into the bloodstream of humans can detect cancers earlier than currently possible.
Published in the Cancer Discovery journal, their paper has said that cancer is detectable in the bloodstream—up to three years before diagnosis because the tumour-derived genetic material shows up in the bloodstream way before actual cancer symptoms start appearing.
The scientists, who used sensitive sequencing tools and analysed blood from a large National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded heart study, have found that multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test could catch cancer-related mutations—even years in advance. In one part of the study, four out of six people had detectable tumour DNA in samples taken more than three years before their diagnosis.
While this has huge promise for early cancer detection, the technology is still in the works, and there are certain questions on how to follow up once the test is positive.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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