The landscape of "mountains" and "valleys" known as the Cosmic Cliffs is actually a portion of the nebula Gum 31, which contains a young star cluster called NGC 3324. Both Gum 31 and NGC 3324 are part ...
Earthly slime mold models have helped astronomers map the cosmic web that connects galaxies throughout the universe. Slime mold, or Physarum polycephalum, is a single-cell organism that builds complex ...
Of course, a strong visual resemblance of the model results to the expected structure of the cosmic web doesn't prove anything. The researchers performed a variety of tests to validate the model as ...