Galactic Constellations in DESI DR1 and the Scales of Cosmological Homogeneity

Abstract

We present galactic constellations: charming shapes in large cosmological surveys. By exploring a dense subset of DESI's first data release, we discover distinctive constellations including "Pisces Grandis", "The DESI Stick Woman", and "W". We additionally develop a public website for anyone to explore DESI data, find their own constellations, and share their creations: see cmlamman.github.io/galactic-constellations. Early users of the site discovered 93 constellations. We analyze the size of these constellations as an unconventional probe of homogeneity, finding consistency with the cosmological principle and Lambda-CDM.

arXiv comment4 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to the journal of Acta Prima Aprilia