North Ecliptic Pole Survey identified XRay Sources, Universe

Movie demonstrates large-scale structure in the Universe as traced by X-ray sources identified in the ROSAT North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) Survey. Featured here are the nearly 300 extragalactic X-ray emitters, primarily clusters of galaxies (64) and active galactic nuclei (218). The physical nature of these objects and their distances from Earth were determined at the Mauna Kea Observatories. The movie begins with the projected view of the NEP X-ray sources similar to how they appear in the sky. The objects are then positioned at their proper three-dimensional locations in space. Subsequently, the survey volume is rotated and translated in various ways to highlight the three-dimensional distribution of objects. Finally, we zoom in on the NEP Supercluster to inspect its size, shape, orientation and composition. The initial scene shows clusters of galaxies (yellow spheres) and active galactic nuclei (red spheres)