North East scientists have demonstrated divine powers by creating an entire universe of their own.

Scientists at Durham University have created an entire simulation of the universe in order to understand the formation of galaxies, stars and more.

The man-made cosmos is a computer simulation in which galaxies similar to those observed by astronomers grow and evolve.

Astronomers based at the North university, in partnership with Leiden University in Holland, developed the project by using a powerful supercomputer, the Cosmology Machine, located in Durham and Paris over several months.

Previous attempts to model the formation of galaxies have failed after producing collections of stars too large, small, old or spherical.

But those produced in the EAGLE (Evolution and Assembly of Galaxies and their Environments) simulation have proved to be more realistic thanks in large part to recreating strong galactic winds - cosmic gas gales driven by stars, supernova explosions and supermassive black holes.

These galactic winds affect the development of galaxies by blowing away the gas from which stars form.

Experts can now use the results to study the development of galaxies from the Big Bang almost 14 billion years ago to the present day.

Professor Richard Bower, Durham Universitys co-author of EAGLEs results which were published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on Thursday, said: The universe generated by the computer is just like the real thing.

There are galaxies everywhere, with all the shapes, sizes and colours Ive seen with the worlds largest telescopes.

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Durham University scientists create entire universe on a super computer