An international team of researchers has created the most complete visual simulation of how the Universe evolved.
The computer model shows how the first galaxies formed around clumps of a mysterious, invisible substance called dark matter.
It is the first time that the Universe has been modelled so extensively and to such great resolution.
Check out the page and watch the computer simulation.
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
Astronomy at Your Fingertips
Besides the exciting implications for Astronomy, Illustris is a special endeavor. The authors have the goal of making the simulation data easily accessible and explorable by anyone, be it other Astronomers or the general public. I encourage you to check out and explore their beautiful website(http://www.illustris-project.org/). They have many amazing images and videos, and even allow you to fly through a snapshot of their simulation (I’ve spent way too much time doing this already). We at Astrobites are excited to be able to share an exclusive interview with the designer of this amazing website. Look for this post tomorrow!!!
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
It turns out that the interactive tools on the Illustris website are the labor primarily of one man, my fellow Harvard Astronomy graduate student Dylan Nelson, and the development was completed in only a couple months. Dylan credits the recent development and availability of open source web tools, like the javascript mapping library Leaflet that he used, as making it possible for him to build the site. These new tools empower astronomers to share their data and results with other scientists, and the public, in fundamentally new and exciting ways.
...
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
A new computer simulation shows the formation of galaxies with unprecedented precision, allowing astrophysicists from Heidelberg, the U.S. and England to indirectly confirm the standard model of cosmology.
Properties of galaxies reproduced by a hydrodynamic simulation - Mark Vogelsberger et al
A team of scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., has successfully reproduced, right here on Earth, the processes that occur in the atmosphere of a red giant star and lead to the formation of planet-forming interstellar dust.
Laboratory Investigations of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Formation
and Destruction in the Circumstellar Outflows of Carbon Stars - Cesar S. Contreras, Farid Salama
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
