Mapping starlight, down to the molecule

It may look like a really detailed screensaver. In reality, however, it’s a new visualization released by Johns Hopkins scientists on Friday that contains the light of the universe.
More specifically, it shows the location of light molecules that have evaded astronomers for decades.
See the map
The map, which was presented to the American Astronomical Society last week, is based on data from more than 500,000 stars, quasars and galaxies across the universe that was compiled from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), according to JHU Hub.

Mapping the unknown.

Six layers reveal the location Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIBs), which were discovered in 1920 when astronomer Mary Lea Heger observed lines in the light between stars and Earth. The lines were later found to be created by groupings of mysterious molecules.
While it’s still unknown which molecules make up the bands, the new map shows exactly where those molecules are located.
With the map, scientists are already seeing patterns in where the molecules that form the bands are showing up, and how they move around the galaxy. They’re already being lovingly referred to as “tough little molecules.”
“These results will guide researchers toward the best observations and laboratory experiments to pin down the properties and nature of these enigmatic molecules,” Hopkins graduate student Ting-Wen Lan, who led one of the two studies that made the maps, told the Hub.
Compiling the map required data that was gathered through new approaches that can literally penetrate space dust. Researchers used data from Sky Survey’s APOGEE, which gathers data from 100,000 red giant stars using infrared technology. According to Brice Ménard, a professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at JHU, the use of tools like APOGEE signals the “era of big data in astronomy.”
“There is so much to explore with these large datasets,” he said. “This is just the beginning.”