|
 |
What's Bigger than a Galaxy? A typical distribution of matter (light and dark) in a 100-megaparsec cube of the universe. Scaled into this map, the Galaxy Crystal would be less than 1 millimeter wide. The cosmological model for this piece is tuned to match the Sloan Survey, an investigation of all galaxies we can see in one quadrant of the sky. It takes us out to within 1000 megaparsecs of Earth. The survey isn't finished yet, so you are looking at current research. Both bright and dark matter are shown, but dark energy hasn't (yet) entered the picture. This crystal is 2 1/2" square by 3 1/4" tall. |
|
The Largest Structures Known The types of feature shown in this model - filaments, sheets and supergalaxy clusters - are too big to see in the night sky. The biggest concentration here is like the Virgo Cluster. | |||||||||
|
Click here to see this structure rotate. Click here to see this structure condense from cold dark matter.
Our local group of galaxies is located on the
edge of a filament extending from the Virgo Cluster to the Fornax
Cluster. In this model, which is not a literal map, we would be
about a quarter of the cube away from the largest cluster.
|
|
|
|||||||
|
The data for this sculpture was created by Professor Quinn and Dr. Stadel
at the University of Washington, under funding from the NASA Earth and
Space Sciences/High Performance Computing and Communication
Program. You can learn more about their research at the delightful N-Body Shop site. This data is used by permission of
the copyright owners.
|
|||||||||
|
All the Universe in a Grain of Sand A research-quality model of the largest cosmological structures that we know of. |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
