An international team of researchers has created the most complete visual
simulation of how the Universe evolved.
In the beginning, it shows strands of mysterious material which cosmologists
call "dark matter" sprawling across the emptiness of space like branches of a
cosmic tree. As millions of years pass by, the dark matter clumps and
concentrates to form seeds for the first galaxies.
Then emerges the non-dark matter, the stuff that will in time go on to make
stars, planets and life emerge.
But early on there are a series of cataclysmic explosions when it gets sucked
into black holes and then spat out: a chaotic period which was regulating the
formation of stars and galaxies. Eventually, the simulation settles into a
Universe that is similar to the one we see around us.
According to Dr. Mark Vogelsberger of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), who led the research, the simulations back many of the current theories
of cosmology.
"Many of the simulated galaxies agree very well with the galaxies in the real
Universe. It tells us that the basic understanding of how the Universe works
must be correct and complete," he said.
In particular, it backs the theory that dark matter is the scaffold on which
the visible Universe is hanging.
The laws of Nature and of Nature's God
