Figure 26-19: A Cold Dark Matter Simulation with Dark Energy These six views show the evolution of dark matter particles in a large, box-shaped volume of space. The box actually expands with time to follow the expansion of the universe and holds the same number of particles. In this figure, the boxes have been rescaled so they all appear at the same size. Small fluctuations in density are put into the simulation at the beginning (at upper left); these evolve over time to form structures that resemble those actually observed in our present-day universe (z = 0.00, shown at the lower right).

(Applications by Andrey Kravtsov, University of Chicago, and Anatoly Klypin, New Mexico State University; visualizations by Andrey Kravtsov)