Visualizing the Universe

A Universe mapping project at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), called the CfA Redshift Survey, is described. The line-of-sight recession velocities of galaxies are measured by identifying absorption and emission lines in their spectra. With the two angular positions of a galaxy on the sky and a measurement of its red-shift, each galaxy can be placed in a three-dimensional (3-D) map of the Universe. It is shown that visualization techniques are important for exploring and analyzing the data, for comparing the data with models, and for designing the future. Computer animation of the data is a way of bringing the maps before the public.<
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