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Cosmology

A virtual Universe

Nature volume 509, pages 170–171 (2014)Cite this article

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A numerical simulation of cosmic structure formation reproduces both large- and smaller-scale features of a representative volume of the Universe from early in its history to the present day. See Article p.177

Perhaps the greatest triumph of modern cosmology is that a model with only six parameters can explain the vast majority of observational data from the first minutes of the Universe to the present day1. This standard model posits that 95% of the Universe today is composed of enigmatic 'dark matter' and 'dark energy'. Paradoxically, modelling the dynamics of the remaining 5% — normal, 'baryonic' matter — has proved to be the more challenging task. On page 177 of this issue, Vogelsberger et al.2 describe a numerical simulation of the formation of cosmic structure that captures both the large-scale distribution of baryonic material and its properties in individual galactic systems through cosmic time.

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Figure 1: The multi-scale nature of galaxy formation.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Michael Boylan-Kolchin is in the Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-2421, USA.,

    Michael Boylan-Kolchin

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  1. Michael Boylan-Kolchin
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Correspondence to Michael Boylan-Kolchin.

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Boylan-Kolchin, M. A virtual Universe. Nature 509, 170–171 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/509170a

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