Technologies

This Scrollable Map of the Universe Reminds Us How Tiny We Really Are

It’s a bit unsettling to scroll through this website scientists made to detail the observable universe. I highly recommend doing it.

When you open up Johns Hopkins University Professor Brice Ménard’s “map of the observable universe,” you’re met with a geometric diagram overflowing with thousands of rainbow freckles, each neatly organized by color. At the bottom of this diagram lies an unnerving phrase.

“You are here.”

One negligible, barely visible dot on this graph represents our entire Milky Way galaxy — a realm with billions of stars besides our own sun, and one we occupy such a small percentage of I don’t even want to attempt writing it out.

With a single pixel, Ménard stunningly puts into perspective the cosmic brevity of everything we’ve ever truly known as human beings.

“This map, representing galaxies just as little dots, allows the viewer to basically understand different scales at the same time,” Ménard said in an overview of the interactive mechanism. “Seeing the vastness of the universe — it’s quite inspiring.”

Scrolling around the 200,000 galaxies in the map — placed in accurate, relative positions to one another — is calming because it reframes how inconsequential the footprint we place in the universe is. It’s disturbing for precisely the same reason.

It draws a distinct parallel with Carl Sagan’s famous quote about Voyager 1’s breathtaking image of Earth from 1990, “Pale Blue Dot.”

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us,” Sagan said. “On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

Though if you’re blown away by the deceptively concise magnitude of Ménard’s map, consider how it doesn’t even account for every galaxy in the universe. In reality, NASA estimates there are something like a hundred billion galaxies unfolding eternities beyond our own.

We’d need an unfathomable level of observable universe cartography to encapsulate the full breadth of the cosmos.

Slice of our universe

Along with a cadre of scientists, Ménard used data mined over two decades by what’s known as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

“Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries,” Ménard said. “But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like.”

Once you click “explore the map” under the Milky Way galaxy label, you arrive at a screen prompting you to “scroll up to travel through the universe.” That such a sentence even exists underscores just how far technology has come.

“From this speck at the bottom,” Ménard said, “we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science.”

Even more impressive is how, as you follow the prompt, a ticker at the bottom left of the screen shows you how many billions of years back in time you’ve scrolled. Meanwhile, the dots go from gradients of pale blues to yellows to oranges to reds, ultimately retreating to a cool midnight hue.

“Each dot is a galaxy shown with its apparent color,” the page reads. “Spiral galaxies are faint and blue. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a blue spiral.”

Elliptical galaxies are shown as yellowish and brighter, while reddened speckles indicate realms that have grown distant enough for the light they emanate to stretch and appear to us on Earth as crimson blurs.

Further back 9 billion years, the map exhibits vivid blue spots to represent quasars rather than galaxies. These are extreme jets of light spewing out from the guts of black holes sitting at the center of certain galaxies.

Basically, it’s really hard to see galaxies from this era of cosmic history, reddened to the point of near-invisibility, but quasars are bright enough to act like flashlights. Their brilliance shines across the universe, revealing scenes otherwise shielded by darkness and softened with distance.

But beyond even those quasars lies a splotch of blackness — evocative of the mysteries lurking beyond the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum. Infrared waters.

“We encounter an epoch during which the universe is filled with hydrogen gas that prevents the propagation of visible light we could observe today. This epoch is called the “dark ages,'” the page reads.

NASA’s magnificent James Webb Space Telescope is such a big deal because it’s built to find secrets hidden in this region invisible to human eyes. Constructed with an army of high-tech infrared sensors, it’s working on detecting galaxies from near the beginning of time stuck in a limbo we cannot see with our minds or machines.

With each Webb discovery, hopefully maps like this one will become populated where their empty spaces currently sit.

And at the very, very top of the page, a marbled photo of the edge of the observable universe. The first flash of light emitted post-Big Bang, nearly 14 billion years ago. The Cosmic Microwave Background.

“We cannot see anything beyond this point,” the map concludes after you scroll back to the beginning of existence. “The light travel time to us is greater than the age of the universe.”

Technologies

Trump Maintains US‑Iran Negotiations Continue Amid Tehran’s Denials of Duplicity

President Trump insists that US‑Iran talks are ongoing despite Tehran’s denial of any negotiation plans, while warning that only a deal or total surrender will allow passage through the Strait of Hormuz. Conflicting statements from both sides have heightened uncertainty as the conflict enters its sixth month.

On Monday, President Donald Trump asserted that negotiations between the United States and Iran are still taking place, even after Tehran stated it has no intention of engaging in direct talks with Washington.

In a fiery Truth Social post, Trump labeled Iran’s leaders “unbelievably duplicitous,” claiming they are lying about ongoing peace talks “whether Iran wants to admit it or not.” He repeated his assertion that the United States completely controls the Strait of Hormuz, despite maritime traffic through the crucial route lingering at only a small fraction of pre‑conflict levels.

He wrote, “Nothing reaches Iran unless we allow it, and nothing will pass unless a deal—or total surrender—is achieved.”

Earlier that day, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters there is no imminent plan for U.S.–Iran negotiations, contradicting Trump’s earlier comment that talks would resume Monday afternoon. Baghaei added that Iran’s only current discussions are with Oman concerning the Strait of Hormuz.

The conflicting statements have heightened uncertainty over the peace‑talk process and the broader conflict, now in its sixth month.

Trump’s assertion about new negotiations came a day after he said on Truth Social that he had agreed to cancel a massive strike against Iran “subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL.” He said in the same post that Iran and other Middle Eastern countries had asked him to hold off on that attack because “the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.”

Trump has claimed dozens of times throughout the more‑than‑five‑month‑long war that a deal is at hand. No permanent deal has been signed, and a temporary ceasefire reached in June has fallen apart.

Trump has also repeatedly threatened to launch devastating strikes against Iran before backing off. After the latest example, oil prices on Monday fell and stocks surged.

BMI, a research unit of Fitch Solutions, said in a note Monday that a broader diplomatic understanding on reopening the Strait of Hormuz is still achievable this quarter, while raising the probability of its escalation scenario to 35% from 25%, citing mounting military, diplomatic and economic signs of rising U.S.-Iran tensions.

“Diplomatic progress is likely to be punctuated by periodic military flare-ups, while miscalculation by either side could trigger a renewed escalation,” BMI analysts wrote in a note. The firm said the key issue to watch is the future governance of the strait, as the Iran-Oman talks — potentially backed by Gulf states, China and the U.S. — point to efforts to build a post-conflict shipping framework.

Shipping risks persist even as diplomacy appears to be advancing. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre said it received a report of an incident 20 nautical miles (23 miles) northeast of Khasab, Oman — at the mouth of the strait — with a tanker’s master reporting an explosion in close proximity to the vessel at about 20:37 UTC Sunday (4:37 pm ET). The vessel and crew were safe and authorities are investigating, UKMTO said, advising ships to transit with caution.

The proposal Trump announced over the weekend calls for the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations and continue ironing out some of the thorny issues that had derailed diplomatic efforts, according to The Associated Press, citing a regional official involved in the mediation efforts.

The official said the proposal also includes a reopening of the Hormuz Strait and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on the Arab Gulf countries and Jordan.

The U.S., for its part, will end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil, the official said, adding that no deal has been reached, although the mediation efforts remained underway.

Trump’s weekend reversal has lowered the temperature after days of escalating attacks across the Gulf. Kuwait said Saturday that Iranian forces launched a wave of drones within its airspace, with its military destroying multiple aircraft after Iran targeted critical infrastructure in the country’s north.

A parallel track with Muscat is also advancing. Iranian diplomats said Tehran was close to reaching a new arrangement with Oman to manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a deal critical to preventing the war from escalating further, according to the Financial Times.

Iranian officials said negotiations over future management of the Hormuz Strait with Oman, which sits on the opposite shore of the waterway, are in their final stages. The agreed shipping route would be different from those used before, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Baghaei, adding that the new route was separate from the issue of the strait’s reopening or continued closure.

Technologies

Oil Prices Slide as Trump Halts Planned Iran Strike

Oil prices dropped after Trump cancelled a planned strike on Iran, with WTI down about 5% and Brent near 5% lower. He said the move followed requests from Tehran and regional allies for a pause while a deal shaping the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program is negotiated.

Oil prices fell on Monday after President Donald Trump announced he had cancelled a planned strike on Iran. WTI futures dropped roughly 5% to $80.34 a barrel, while Brent slipped about 4.7% to $83.77 a barrel.

Trump said early Sunday he called off the strike after Iran and several Middle Eastern nations asked him to hold off, noting that the outlines of a deal had been agreed upon. He added that the prospective accord would entail the immediate, full opening of the Strait of Hormuz and an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, according to his Truth Social post.

The president had been considering another round of strikes as diplomatic hopes waned since the conflict began on February 28. He said the U.S. and Iran would meet for talks on Monday, but Iran denied any scheduled negotiations with Washington, citing PressTV. Iran’s foreign‑ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei clarified that Tehran was only discussing shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz with Oman. In a follow‑up Truth Social message, Trump insisted that, regardless of Iran’s acknowledgment, the United States is indeed discussing a solution to a long‑standing problem created by Iran.

Technologies

Oil Prices Drop as Trump Cancels Planned Attack on Iran

Oil prices fell sharply after President Trump announced the cancellation of a planned strike on Iran, citing a new deal that would open the Hormuz Strait and end Iran’s nuclear threat.

Oil prices fell sharply on Monday after President Donald Trump announced that he had called off a planned strike on Iran.

West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. benchmark, slipped roughly 5% to close at $80.34 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, declined 4.7% to settle at $83.77 a barrel.

Trump made the announcement early Sunday, saying he had canceled the strike following requests from Tehran and other Middle Eastern countries.

In a Truth Social post, he wrote: “We have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.”

The president indicated that the proposed agreement would include the immediate, complete, and total opening of the Hormuz Strait, as well as an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.

Trump had been weighing additional strikes amid diminishing prospects for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict that began on Feb. 28. He stated that the U.S. and Iran would hold negotiations on Monday.

Tehran denied that talks were planned with Washington, according to state news outlet PressTV.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was only holding talks with Oman regarding the routes ships can use through the Strait of Hormuz.

In a subsequent Truth Social post, Trump added that whether “Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking of a solution to a problem that they have caused for decades.”