APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Simulating the Universe
Explanation: The above cube represents a chunk of our universe as simulated by the Grand Challenge Cosmology Consortium (GC3). The cube is huge - it would take light 500 million years to cross it. Low density gas is shown as blue, and high density gas as red. In the beginning of the universe , matter and gas were spread quite uniformly . As this computer universe evolved, gravity caused high density areas to be created. This simulation hypothesized that 1/3 of the universe is composed of slow moving “cold dark matter”, and 2/3 composed of fast moving “hot dark matter.” The areas of high and low density resulting from this computer simulation are similar to those observed by astronomers in the real universe .
| Date | November 8, 1995 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Credit: G. L. Bryan, M. L. Norman, UIUC, NCSA, GC3 |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |