About the Image on the Home Page
| The Logarithmic Tennessee Sky incorporates a topographical image of the state of Tennessee, curved to match the curvature of the Earth. Above it hangs a seemingly random arrangement of celestial objects. Though their horizontal positions were chosen based on aesthetics, their vertical distance of each object's center above the center of the image of Tennessee is exactly proportional to their relative distance from the Earth, with the distance multiplying by a factor of 10 with every 28 pixels. The logarithmic distance scale allows the ISS, at 390 kilometers, to fit on the same screen as quasar SDSS 1030+0524, believed to be 13 billion light-years distant. The top edge of the image corresponds to the supposed end (and beginning) of the universe. |
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