The list of discoveries by scientists using Sloan Digital Sky Survey data includes:

• The most distant quasar ever found.

• Evidence that the Milky Way was formed by cannibalism in neighboring galaxies.

• Many more dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way than were thought to exist.

• Great expanses of nothingness, known as voids.

• Large numbers of galaxies clustered together, the most massive of which is dubbed the "Great Wall," strung out in a huge filament arcing across the night sky.

LOS ANGELES TIMES