Simulations of Structure Growth
Large-scale computer simulations of the growth of structure in the early Universe
have had some success in describing that structure. Two such simulations are shown
below.
A Computer Simulation
The right panel links to a set of
movies showing computer simulations of
large-scale structural growth in the
Universe that use a mixture of hot and cold
dark matter.
The top right figure shows the end result of such a simulation.
In this simulation,
filaments grow that
surround gigantic
bubbles of
low-density gas. The intersections of the filaments produce regions of high
density (signified by red) that are thought to generate bright
X-ray clusters of galaxies.
Another Simulation
The adjacent left figure shows a simulation of the growth of structure in the Universe
using cold dark matter and a critical density for the Universe.
The void and filament structure is quite noticeable
in this image.
The large
open areas are the voids. The superclusters of
galaxies are the dense clusterings along the filaments, and the brightest spots
in these filaments are the most luminous large clusters.