A computer simulation depicting a large chunk of our universe
G. L. Bryan, M. L. Norman, UIUC, NCSA, GC3
Related links:
A Matter of Scale - interactive showing the sizes of things, from very tiny to huge - from NSF
The Cosmos
Cosmology is the study of the overall structure of the universe. And just what is the Universe? Quite simply, it is everything that exists. However, from Earth we cannot observe everything in the Universe. Some things are dark (brown dwarf stars, planets, and Dark Matter) and we cannot see them. Additionally there are parts of the universe whose light has not yet reached us in this part of the Universe. The observable universe is the Universe that reveals itself through electromagnetic radiation that can be detected on Earth. And because that radiation travels at a finite speed we actually
look back in time when we look into the cosmos.
Astronomers observe some rather interesting and perplexing structure in the Current Universe. That structure can tell us much about the History of the Universe. It can also tell us what we can expect for the Future of the Universe and beyond...
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