This weeks blog attempts to isolate the concept of Extreme Cartography. There are a wide range of ideas regarding what Extreme means. For some it indicates geographical areas that are isolated from the average individual such as Antarctica. For others, it surfaces as a form of social interaction such as extreme political and religious groups. For me extreme cartography has nothing to do with our planet. For the most part nearly everything on the planet can be mapped in some way except perhaps the interior of the planet which the Japanese are attempting to crack as I write. Cartography of the universe seems to fall neatly into the slot of extreme. there are a number of scientists today that are focusing on building a map of our galaxy and all the surrounding galaxy's as well. In an attempt to figure out what the most abundant substance in the universe is (dark energy) and how if works a good article to begin this discussion can be found at http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4314 this article is a few years old but still relevant to extreme cartography. In terms of astrophysics there is a man named Gott, Juric et al that has constructed a logarithmic map of the universe http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~mjuric/universe/ This site offers a nice maps of the entire perceived universe, galaxy and solar system near earth. You should definitely check out this site if you are interested in "the final frontier" (William Shattner, original Star Trek). 
The following maps indicates why scientists believe that dark energy is the dominate material of our universe, for a great explanation of this map go to their web site at antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031028.html
The map below is a map that attempts to define the BIG BANG theory and actually makes a lot of sense for further information regarding this concept go to
del.icio.us/nikomicapero/timeline
Mapping the universe is challenging as many features cannot be physically interacted with. Developing a map under these conditions is definably EXTREME! Map geeks be alert as new information regarding the universe is discovered every day and a Extreme map is sure to follow.
