Two views on the universe

Following on from our trip out into the universe, moving from the smallest scales to the largest scales, here are two maps of the universe using logarithmic distance scales. The first was announced in this paper; you can see the map and download it at the Princeton astrophysics site here.

The second is a somwhat more whimsical version of the Princeton map, courtesy of the science and math inspired xkcd comic strip (caution: occasional strong language), shown below. This map is mostly very accurate (although in reality there are less cats in space); I especially like the way the world's tallest buildings look on a logarithmic scale.