Simulating the Universe

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 .