The Visible Universe

Everything depends on your point of view — more or less. Our picture of the universe has changed in the last 60 years as telescope technology has improved. Popsci has a great interactive visualization showing how much more we can see now.

Notice that in this picture, the Earth is at the center of the universe (the Sun is a little way off to the middle lower left). After all, we’re looking at the universe from the Earth, not the other way around.

The universe as it appeared in 1950, compared to what we can see now (2011). Image from Popsci.com

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