Journey Through the Cosmic Web

This visualization is a flight through the ’cosmic web’, the large scale structure of the universe. Each bright knot is an entire galaxy, while the purple filaments show where material exists between the galaxies. To the human eye, only the galaxies would be visible, and this visualization allows us to see the strands of material connecting the galaxies and forming the cosmic web. This visualization is based on a scientific simulation of the growth of structure in the universe. The matter, dark matter, and dark energy in a region of the universe are followed from very early times of the universe through to the present day using the equations of gravity, hydrodynamics, and cosmology. The normal matter has been clipped to show only the densest regions, which are the galaxies, and is shown in white. The dark matter is shown in purple. The size of the simulation is a cube with a side length of 134 megaparsecs (437 million light-years). This animation flies through the cosmic web of the early universe. At the end, we see the Hubble Space Telescope collecting data points. Launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has revolutionized astronomy by providing unprecedented views of the Universe. Hubble’s spectral range extends from the ultraviolet, through the visible, and into the near-infrared. NASA will fly a servicing mission in 2008 to bring two new science instruments to Hubble - the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and the Wide Field Camera 3. New gyros and batteries will extend Hubble’s life through 2013. Credit: NASA/NCSA University of Illinois Visualization by Frank Summers, Space Telescope Science Institute, Simulation by Martin White and Lars Hernquist, Harvard University Frank Summers (STScI): Project Support Lars Hernquist (Harvard University): Animator Martin White (Harvard University): Animator Please give credit for this item to: NASA/NCSA University of Illinois Visualization by Frank Summers, Space Telescope Science Institute, Simulation by Martin White and Lars Hernquist, Harvard University