The Long View,
The true—and vast—complexity of the universe was captured in this vista recorded by a pair of automated telescopes, one in the U.S. and one in the Chilean desert. From our little perch inside the Milky Way, the image shows the universe stretching out for about a billion light years, which is only a small fraction of its total size. Each of the 50,000 dots represents an entire galaxy. The Earth, once believed to sit at the center of it all, is in truth a cosmic afterthought.
John Huchra, Thomas Jarrett 2MASS collaboration, U.MASS, IPAC