Editor's Summary
2 June 2005
Evolution of the universe
Computer simulations have been used to blend the giant snapshot of cosmic history provided by modern galaxy surveys into a coherent picture displaying the underlying physical processes of galaxy formation and evolution. The growth of 20 million galaxies in a huge cosmological volume was modelled and it proved possible to identify the unusual formation sites and eventual fate of the first bright quasars. It was shown that large surveys are likely to include features in the galaxy distribution that directly reflect physics in the early Universe and may clarify the nature of the mysterious dark energy driving its current accelerated expansion. The cover shows the distribution of dark matter in a slice of thickness 60 million lightyears through the simulated universe.
News and Views: Cosmology: Digitizing the Universe
For years, cosmologists have been racing each other to develop ever more sophisticated and realistic models of the evolution of the Universe. The competition has just become considerably stiffer.
Nickolay Y. Gnedin
doi: 10.1038/435572a
Article: Simulations of the formation, evolution and clustering of galaxies and quasars
Volker Springel, Simon D. M. White, Adrian Jenkins, Carlos S. Frenk, Naoki Yoshida, Liang Gao, Julio Navarro, Robert Thacker, Darren Croton, John Helly, John A. Peacock, Shaun Cole, Peter Thomas, Hugh Couchman, August Evrard, Jörg Colberg and Frazer Pearce
doi: 10.1038/nature03597
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (442K) | Supplementary information
