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Credit & Copyright: Illustris Collaboration,
NASA,
PRACE,
XSEDE,
MIT,
Harvard CfA;
Music: The Poisoned Princess (Media Right Productions)
Explanation:
How did we get here?
Click play, sit back, and
watch.
A new computer simulation
of the evolution of the universe -- the largest and most sophisticated yet produced
--
provides new insight into how
galaxies formed and
new perspectives into
humanity's place in the universe.
The Illustris project --
the largest of its type yet --
exhausted 20 million CPU hours following
12 billion resolution elements spanning a cube 35 million
light years
on a side as it evolved over 13 billion years.
The simulation
is the first to track matter into the
formation of a wide variety of galaxy types.
As the virtual
universe evolves, some of the matter expanding with the
universe soon gravitationally condenses to form filaments,
galaxies, and
clusters of galaxies.
The above video takes the
perspective of a virtual camera circling part of this changing universe, first showing
the evolution of
dark matter, then
hydrogen gas coded by temperature
(0:45),
then heavy elements such as
helium and
carbon
(1:30),
and then back to dark matter
(2:07).
On the lower left the time since the
Big Bang is listed, while on the lower right the type of matter being shown
is listed.
Explosions (0:50)
depict galaxy-center supermassive
black holes expelling bubbles of hot gas.
Interesting discrepancies between
Illustris and the
real universe do exist and are being studied, including
why
the simulation
produces an overabundance of old stars.
Music: The Poisoned Princess (Media Right Productions)
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: universe
Publications with words: universe
See also: