E-Mail IMAGE: Visualization of the Last Journey simulation. Shown is the large-scale structure of the universe as a thin slice through the full simulation (lower left) and zoom-ins at different levels. The... view more Credit: (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.) A massive simulation of the cosmos and a nod to the next generation of computing A team of physicists and computer scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory performed one of the five largest cosmological simulations ever. Data from the simulation will inform sky maps to aid leading large-scale cosmological experiments. The simulation, called the Last Journey, follows the distribution of mass across the universe over time -- in other words, how gravity causes a mysterious invisible substance called "dark matter" to clump together to form larger-scale structures called halos, within which galaxies form and evolve.