Anthropic Unveils First Complete All-Sky Ultraviolet Map
Anthropic's Claude Science AI agents helped map the full ultraviolet sky, including a third previously unobserved, under astrophysicist Brice Ménard.
Anthropic has unveiled the first complete all-sky ultraviolet map, filling in UV regions that had previously gone unobserved. The project was led by Brice Ménard, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University and a researcher at Anthropic.
Researchers ran multiple AI agents inside the Claude Science environment to handle data collection through visualization in parallel. About one third of the sky previously had no ultraviolet data, and machine-learning inpainting was used to estimate that unobserved third.
UV emission from over 119 million individual stars and more than 160,000 extragalactic sources was estimated using Gaia visible-light measurements. In validation tests where parts of the observation data were hidden, the prediction error was within about 10%.
Researchers found repeated circular artifacts that AI agents missed across two reviews. Claude Science corrected atmospheric glow across 38,000 observations after Ménard pointed it out.
The completed map was released to researchers worldwide through the project website. NASA's GALEX satellite operated from 2003 to 2013 and deliberately avoided observing the star-dense galactic plane and areas around bright stars; South Korea's FIMS/SPEAR instrument on STSAT-1 and NASA's Swift collected additional ultraviolet data. Claude Science launched in public beta in June 2026. aitimes.com reported the announcement.
Quick answers
What is the all-sky ultraviolet map?
It is the first complete map of the ultraviolet sky, filling in about one third of the sky that previously had no UV data.
How was the missing ultraviolet data estimated?
Machine-learning inpainting was used to estimate the unobserved third of the sky.
How accurate were the predictions?
In validation tests where parts of the observation data were hidden, the prediction error was within about 10%.