Structure formation
Videos
In physical cosmology, structure formation describes the creation of galaxies, galaxy clusters, and larger structures via gravitational and hydrodynamic processes operating on cosmological inhomogenei
Snapshot from a computer simulation of large scale structure formation in a Lambda-CDM universe.
Dark matter
Videos
In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with electromagnetic radiation, including light. Dark matter is implied by gravitational
Structure formation
…bound structures such as the first stars and stellar clusters form, then galaxies, followed by groups, clusters and superclusters of galaxies. Dark matter plays a crucial role in structure formation because it feels only the force of gravity: the gravitational Jeans instability which allows compact…
Hubble close-up on the Coma Cluster
Gravitational lensing bends light around a massive object from a distant source. The orange arrows show the apparent position of the background source. The white arrows show the path of the light from the true position of the source.
The Bullet Cluster
November 2025 JWST observations confirmed an actively growing supermassive black hole within a "little red dot" galaxy named CANUCS-LRD-z8.6.