
Cosmology
Shortly after it formed 13,8 billion years ago, the universe was hot, dense and almost featureless. In the meantime, the universe has formed net-like structures, the so-called ‘cosmic web’. Across this network, countless galaxies form huge clusters. The astronomers and cosmologists of the Max Planck Society observe these largest structures in the universe with state-of-the-art telescopes. As light has a finite speed, it also allows a glimpse into the past. In order to understand how everything came into being, where we and our atoms and molecules come from, the researchers reconstruct their observations in complex computer simulations.