Video Show: A Blueprint for the Universe

This still from a NASA video shows a snapshot of the universe as simulated by NASA's Pleiades supercomputer, the seventh fastest in the world. The Bolshoi universe simulation is the most realistic view of the universe to date and was released in late September 2011. CREDIT: NASA/UCSC View full size image

The universe is a big place, near-infintely big, but there's a structure to our cosmos that astronomers are hard at work unraveling. Take a tour of some of the out-of-this-world structures that make our universe tick in this video show, "A Blueprint for the Universe," the first stop in SPACE.com's eight-weekday series to look at our universe's mysteries entitiled: The History & Future of the Cosmos.

Episode 1: The Way of Things

Episode 2: The Dark Force

Episode 3: Yesterday's News

Episode 4: Edge of the Known

Episode 5: The Matter of Matter

Episode 6: The Grand Architecture

Episode 7: Galaxy Collision

Episode 8: Galactic Lives

Episode 9: The Tully Collection

Episode 10: Beyond the Event Horizon

Episode 11: Galaxy: Home

Episode 12: Extra-Solar Worlds

Episode 13: Jewels and Junk

Episode 14: Birth in the Family of Sol

Episode 15: The Perfect Ballet

Episode 16: Rivers in the Sky

Episode 17: Know Your Place

Episode 18: From Radar to Redshift

Episode 19: Your Universe

It took quite a bit more than seven days to create the universe as we know it today. SPACE.com looks at the mysteries of the heavens in our eight-part series: The History & Future of the Cosmos. This is Part 1 in that series.