The UC team ran the computer code for a total of about 500,000 processor hours at two supercomputing centers --the San Diego Supercomputer Centre and the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois. The team generated about 60 terabytes of data during the calculations.
The model constructed in the computer equates to a region roughly 1.5 billion light-years across (one light year is about six trillion miles).
The simulation itself takes into account virtually all of the known physical conditions of the universe reaching back in time almost to the Big Bang and models the motion of matter as it collapsed due to gravity and became dense enough to form cosmic filaments which are comprised of much of the gaseous mass of the universe.
These filaments stretch for hundreds of millions of light-years.
I wonder how many CD-ROMs it would take to accommodate all of the data?
Pictured is a portion of a supercomputer simulation of the universe. The bright object in the centre is a galaxy cluster about 1 million-billion times the mass of the sun. In between the filaments, which store most of the universe's mass, are giant, spherical voids nearly empty of matter.
3 comments:
Yes and? Next step, Grendel?
I don't know if you've heard about the Great attractor?
Basically, there is an object we cannot see, BEYOND the Great Wall of Galaxies that is dragging both our cluster AND that huge cluster towards it.
Yet we have no idea what it is.
Mind boggling, truly.
Another thing that has always fascinated me. Look far enough in any direction you want, and the points you are looking at are far nearer too eachother than you realise. If you really could see 13.7 billion light years one way, and then turn round and look 13.7 billion light years the other way, those points AREN'T 27.4 billion light years apart.
What James said. Why?
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