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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.

See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

The Universe Evolves

Explanation: Scroll right and watch the universe evolve. Above is a computer simulation depicting the evolution of our entire universe. On the far left is a slice of the universe soon after the Big Bang - over 10 billion years ago. As time progresses toward the right, the initially smooth universe can be seen becoming more and more clumpy. The vertex near the far right marks the present day. The largest slice of the universe actually surveyed is simulated to the vertex's right. This artificial universe , called a Hubble Volume , was designed to mimic what humanity might see were we to have powerful enough telescopes. By comparing different computer simulations to reality , we might be able to better tell what kind of universe we live in .

Date September 5, 1999
Credit Credit: A. Kudlicki (CAMK) & G. Evrard (Michigan) et al., The Virgo Consortium
Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.