The universe is enormous, we can’t really compare its size to that of the Earth or other human-scale phenomena (well we can but it doesn’t really give any meaningful numbers, for example, the observable universe is approximately 34,156,488,790,653,600,000 times bigger than the earth, but we can’t really understand a number that big). Alternatively, scientists use light years to describe the vast distances involved in the universe, i.e. how far would you travel in a year if you continuously moved at the speed of light? The answer as it turns out is almost a trillion miles, the entire observable universe is 46 billion light years, all meaning that the universe is very very big!

Because the universe is so big, it is usually impossible to visualize on the same medium the entirety of the observational data available to astrophysicists today. Data sets covering low-Earth satellites (160 km away) all the way to the map of Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (a map that stretches all the way to the end of the observable universe) span some 28 orders of magnitude. A desire to achieve a single visualisation for all these datasets is a challenge that Dr Roberto Trotta has decided to undertake. Roberto has partnered with Dr James Rosindell and Dr Elizabeth Hauke to work with colleagues in the Data Science Institute to build a single visualisation using the newly founded KPMG sponsored Global Data Observatory.

How will they achieve this? There are many approaches but also drawbacks when attempting to compress differing length scales, one approach is to use logarithmic scales which group together values within the same order of magnitude, however, this often masks finer levels of detail. The group will instead be using a multi-scale approach that was originally pioneered by James in the development of his OneZoom visualisation technology which was built to visualise the tree of life. The multi-scale approach can unlock access to both the global and local aspects of the data.

The Global Data Observatory is uniquely suited for developing this capability. The final visualisation will become a central focus of Imperial’s SpaceLab, by providing a way of contextualising the entirety of Imperial’s research in Space, e.g. by highlighting Imperial’s research contributions on the map; it will be a high-profile venue to demonstrate Imperial’s Space capabilities to many different audiences; and it will be a demonstrator for showcasing the power of such Big Data visualization technologies.