The Illustris Project, a joint effort by a team of scientists, produced a simulation of the formation of the universe over 13.8 billion years.
Their model was the most sophisticated simulation to date, computing the evolution of 50,000 galaxies based on our understanding of the processes involved and the laws of nature that apply. The results match the real universe to an impressive degree, but they have also provoked interesting questions about how and why the simulated results differ from the actual universe.
It took a bit of computing power to model 12 billion data points and 500 terabytes of data. By using 8000 processors the simulation used the equivalent of 2000 years of processing time on a standard desktop computer.
A number of videos resulted from the project, including this one from MIT:
A version without narration is the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day. Another narrated version is here.
Their model was the most sophisticated simulation to date, computing the evolution of 50,000 galaxies based on our understanding of the processes involved and the laws of nature that apply. The results match the real universe to an impressive degree, but they have also provoked interesting questions about how and why the simulated results differ from the actual universe.
It took a bit of computing power to model 12 billion data points and 500 terabytes of data. By using 8000 processors the simulation used the equivalent of 2000 years of processing time on a standard desktop computer.
A number of videos resulted from the project, including this one from MIT:
A version without narration is the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day. Another narrated version is here.
