Computer simulation reveals 'dawn' of the cosmos

Washington, Feb 11 (ANI): Scientists have used a computer simulation to come up with images that show the formation of the first big galaxies in the Universe, which is literally the 'cosmic dawn'.

The images, produced by scientists at Durham University's Institute for Computational Cosmology, predict what the very early Universe would have appeared like 500 million years after the Big Bang.

The Cosmic Dawn began as galaxies began to form out of the debris of massive stars which died explosively shortly after the beginning of the Universe.

The Durham calculation predicts where these galaxies appear and how they evolve to the present day, over 13 billion years later.

Gravity produced by dark matter is an essential ingredient in galaxy formation and by studying its effects the scientists eventually hope to learn more about what the substance is.

The work combined a massive simulation showing how structures grow in dark matter with a model showing how normal matter, such as gas, behaves to predict how galaxies grow.

Gas feels the pull of gravity from dark matter and is heated up before cooling by releasing radiation and turning into stars.

The simulation images show which galaxies are forming stars most vigorously at a given time.

Although the galaxies are biggest at the present day, the rate at which they are making new stars has dropped greatly compared with the rate in the early Universe.

The calculations of the Durham team, supported by scientists at the Universidad Catolica in Santiago, Chile, can be tested against new observations reaching back to early stages in the history of the Universe almost one billion years after the Big Bang.

According to lead author, Alvaro Orsi, a research postgraduate in Durham University's Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC), "We are effectively looking back in time and by doing so we hope to learn how galaxies like our own were made and to understand more about dark matter."

"The presence of dark matter is the key to building galaxies. Without dark matter, we wouldn't be here today," he said.

"Our research predicts which galaxies are growing through the formation of stars at different times in the history of the Universe and how these relate to the dark matter," said co-author Dr Carlton Baugh, a Royal Society Research Fellow, in the ICC, at Durham University.

"We give the computer what we think is the recipe for galaxy formation and we see what is produced which is then tested against observations of real galaxies," he added. (ANI)