the universe

 +   `    ``          .     `+     `    *  `     ++        `  `     `
  .       `   `           ` `  `    . ` .   `` ``          .       .
 `              . `  ``          `  `      ` `  .   `           `
*.    `  .           `    .   `     ` .    .   `            `
  @            .         ..`       `. `      + `    `    `         `  `
      .        `   +` `.  +         `` `     ..         . `         +

an ascii atlas of everything, in seven plates. each one zooms out roughly a thousandfold. every figure is drawn by a small ruby script from real catalogs and real math — logarithmic spirals, supergalactic coordinate rotations, a zel’dovich pancake simulation, a numerically integrated friedmann equation. no images. text over TLS, all the way down.

state of knowledge: september 2026. planet positions are computed for 2026-09-04, the day the atlas was drawn.

plate 1 — the solar system

plate 2 — the milky way

plate 3 — the local group

plate 4 — laniakea

plate 5 — the observable universe

plate 6 — deep time

plate 7 — the recipe

sources

the numbers come from the literature, not from vibes:

planck 2018 results (cosmological parameters)

DESI DR2: BAO and evolving dark energy

tully et al. 2014: the laniakea supercluster

dupuy & courtois 2024: basins of attraction in cosmicflows-4

sawala et al. 2025: no certain fate for the milky way

naidu et al. 2025: MoM-z14, a luminous galaxy at z=14.4

gravity collaboration: the distance to sgr A*

reid et al. 2019: parallaxes and the spiral structure of the galaxy

mcconnachie 2012: the observed properties of local group dwarfs