Fulldome flight through the cosmic web

This visualisation in fulldome format shows a flight through the cosmic web — the large scale structure of the Universe.

Each bright knot is an entire galaxy, whilst the purple filaments show where material exists between the galaxies. To the human eye, only the galaxies would be visible, however this visualisation allows us to see the strands of material connecting the galaxies and forming the cosmic web.

This visualisation is based on a scientific simulation of the growth of structure in the Universe. The matter, dark matter, and dark energy in a region of the Universe are followed from very early times of the Universe through to the present day using the equations of gravity, hydrodynamics, and cosmology.

The normal matter has been clipped to show only the densest regions, which are the galaxies, and is shown in white. The dark matter is shown in purple. The size of the simulation is a cube with a side length of 437 million light-years.