spacetoday.net: Astronomers create "realistic" simulation of universe on a supercomputer

Posted: Thu, May 8, 2014, 6:09 AM ET (1009 GMT)
Astronomers announced this week that they have created, for the first time, a realistic model of the formation of the universe on a supercomputer. The model, called Illustris, simulates 13 billion years of the universe, starting 12 million years after the Big Bang, in a cube 350 million light-years on a side, accurately modeling both small-scale and large-scale structures. The simulation of the universe's development took three months on runtime on a supercomputer with 8,000 CPUs running in parallel. The computer simulation allows astronomers to compare models of the universe's development, including the roles played by dark matter, supernovae, and supermassive block holes, with the characteristics of the actual universe. Astronomers published the work on the supercomputer simulation in the latest issue of the journal Nature.