One year ago, we released a short video called "The Known Universe," a six-minute journey from Mt. Everest to the farthest reaches of the observable universe. Since then, the video has received almost 7 million views on YouTube, garnered over fourteen thousand comments, and is the third-most-favorited and eleventh-top-rated video in Science & Technology.

In case you missed it:

“The Known Universe” satisfies a hunger we have for the cosmos, and seeing the universe in this way often stirs emotions within us. Many, including myself, begin to feel exceptionally small—an all-too-foreign experience for our species—as we travel farther and farther away from everything that is familiar to us. Some are even compelled to reflect on our role beyond Earth, pondering the “hows” and “whys” of our existence in the universe.

All of these thoughts were conjured up from a straightforward rendering of astronomical data. For those seeing this for the first time, you may be shocked by the sheer amount of data collected from the world's observatories. For scientists, those areas that appear blank, where we have yet to point our telescopes, offer more curiosity. It is on this cosmic frontier where the answers to our questions lie, and pursuing them will enable future generations to understand how the universe formed, what ingredients are necessary for livable worlds, and perhaps even the origin of the universe itself.

What are your thoughts after viewing the "The Known Universe?" Please share them in the comments below.