62: The Cosmic Sponge

 
90.jpeg

Space is big, as Douglas Adams so succinctly put it. But how big? And what does the Universe look like when you see it at those scales. The structure of the large-scale cosmos is amazing — beyond galaxies, beyond clusters of galaxies, we're talking super-mega-ludicrous clusters. Clusters of clusters. Madness. In the last 20 years two advances have given us a glimpse of the Universe at these largest scales: surveys of galaxies that map out the cosmos in fine detail, and stupendously complex simulations on powerful supercomputers. At the heart of it all, responsible for the intriguing filaments and walls and voids — the cosmic sponge itself — we find an old, mysterious, dark friend.

Want to help us make Syzygy even better?
Tell your friends and give us a review,
or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Huge thanks to our patrons, listed over on the
Cosmic Great Wall of Gratitude

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod

Things we talked about in this episode:

Perseverance, the latest robot on Mars

The Observable Universe

The Great Attractor

The Zone of Avoidance

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey

SDSS, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Galaxy Zoo

Fly through the Universe!

The Millennium Simulation Project

Zoom into the Cosmic Sponge

Fly through the Millennium Simulation Universe

The Illustrious Simulation

Illustris simulation video

Dark Emulator