Now, anyone can access the largest spatial map ever created. This is the method

If you want to have a better understanding of deep space, you have a chance now. The treasure trove of data collected by James Webb’s space telescope is now available for public consumption. The data comes with an interactive map with nearly 800,000 galaxies and various filters, so you can view them in different ways.

The data began on June 5 with Caltech’s investigation into the evolution of the universe. It consists of survey data plotting a sky of 0.54 square degrees. For reference, if you look at this month’s Strawberry Moon, the number of sky mapped by the telescope is equivalent to about three full satellites side by side. The total size of all map data is approximately 1.5 TB.

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The map contains galaxies and stars, which are 13.5 billion years old, meaning it provides the best appearance for the early universe provided by science. NASA estimates that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, so these galaxies and stars are ancient. In the data, galaxies and stars cover 98% of the known universe history.

This makes this newly released map larger than the largest ever galaxy map, which still covers a small part of the overall layout of the galaxy. However, the Milky Way graph is still larger in terms of data, as the graph is more than 500 tb in size.

The researchers used JWST’s near-infrared camera to draw the sky and used a mid-infrared instrument to draw a 0.2 square foot sky. There are about 1.5 TB of data to filter. Arguably the coolest part of the information dump is the interactive mapping, which will load in a web browser and allow the user to walk around and see everything contained.

Using the interactive map viewer

Curious people can view the project’s map viewer. To use the map, you just click on the link and click the Check! button. Once the map is loaded, you will see a square image containing over 700,000 galaxies and other objects.

Once the map is loaded, the best way to view it is to use layers and filters in the upper right corner. The first box contains views, including Nircam RGB and several other views. The second box breaks the image into tiles. These tiles are the way images are mapped, so you can see which instrument you use to capture each segment of the map.

For educational purposes, the third box is the box to be used. These options outline the objects of interest. Clicking them gives you the directory ID (which allows you to search for these objects again later), taking the original image of each object, as well as other data points such as light wavelengths.

The tools on the upper left are used for searching and configuring, such as increasing brightness and changing the tone to make certain objects easy to view. With controls, the best option is to look around and find all the cool stuff. At any time, you can reset all settings by refreshing the browser window.

How to access data

Data can be accessed in several different ways. The COSMOS2025 project published three research papers on the collection of data. The first is a directory of everything observed. The other two focus on near-infrared imaging and mid-infrared imaging for acquiring data.

You can get the data by filling in this form. Once done, you will be able to download the data. It can be downloaded as a single download or a single tiles if you prefer. If needed, provide more advanced instructions from the COSMOS2025 project website, and provide more data here if you want to download.

You may notice that most map data is suitable for file formats. This is an unusual file format that your standard Photoshop or Image viewing application will not handle very well. Fortunately, NASA has a trusted image viewer list that you can choose from.

The data will also be used to help answer questions about the early universe, and it will be helpful for researchers around the world to get all of this data for free.