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Evolution of Structure in the Cosmos (Image 1)
Evolution of Structure in the Cosmos (Image 1)
This snapshot was taken from a simulation showing evolution of structure in a large volume of the universe. Gas density is shown (increasing with brightness) with temperature (increasing from blue to red color). Yellow circles indicate black holes (diameter increasing with mass). This image shows the period about 450 million years after the big bang, as the early universe still shows a relatively uniform structure, the first black hole appears.
[Note: The animation shows the universe evolving from about 200 million years after the big bang until about five billiion years, approximately what it looks like today, with brightness corresponding to gas density, revealing unprecedented structure.]
This research was partially supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Astronomythe Extragalactic Astrophysics and Cosmology Program (grant AST 06-07819), and also by the NSF Teragrid Program (1 million node hour allocation). Further information about the making of this large-scale cosmological simulation is available Here. (Date of Image: 2007) [See Related Image.]
Credit: Tiziana Di Matteo, McWilliams Center for Cosmology, Carnegie Mellon University
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