Here’s more about the virtual reality installation developed at CASUS:

Have you heard about the dark ages? If you think about the time after the fall of the Western Roman Empire you are on the wrong track. We have some other dark ages to talk about. If you go back in time, really far back, then there was a time after the Big Bang when the Universe was empty of the familiar astrophysical objects that we observe today. There were no light-producing structures such as stars and galaxies. In terms of ordinary matter, there were only certain gases around.

Towards the end of these so-called dark ages, first stars and galaxies appeared. Later on, larger structures like groups and clusters of galaxies formed – held together by gravity. Hence, the study of the large-scale structure in modern cosmology aims to answer questions like how these structures have formed and evolved, and how is it that they are distributed in such a way that they form recognizable patterns across space (and time).

The visualization you will experience shows the distribution of dark matter in the Universe. You will discover in fast-forward that – over billions of years – dark matter is getting organized in filaments and nodes, that host the luminous objects made out of ordinary matter like stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters. The structure as a whole resembles a giant spider web and, not surprisingly, this biggest structure in the Universe is indeed referred to as the “cosmic web”.

• Explore the Universe from the dark ages to the present!
• Experience the vastness of the Universe!
• Get to know dark matter and dark energy!