The DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys team releases what it says is the largest-ever 2D color map of the universe. The dataset comprises 5.6 trillion pixels and includes nearly 4 billion celestial objects, primarily stars and galaxies. The team makes the data publicly available for use and viewing through the Legacy Survey Sky Viewer.
The map is built from observations collected over 13 years using a pair of telescopes associated with NSF NOIRLab. Coverage is described as about three-quarters of the sky. Across the outlets, the emphasis differs slightly: one focuses on the map’s size in pixels and object count, while the other highlights the duration of the observing campaign and the number of images involved in producing the final 2D product. Both accounts describe the release as a major new resource for researchers and the public.
No single source disputes the core figures—pixel count, object count, and multi-year telescope effort—nor do they present differing interpretations of what the release contains. Instead, the differences mainly reflect how each outlet frames the achievement, either through technical scale or observational effort.
