Scientists have used the world’s fastest supercomputer to show the universe as it has never been seen before.
In this incredible video, scientists from the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory reveal the largest computer simulation of the universe ever created.
The simulated area contains a staggering 311,296 cubic megaparsecs of space.
Through it, you can watch as vast clusters of galaxies come together over billions of years.
However, this staggeringly massive vista is just 0.001 per cent of the entire simulation.
The results of that enormous computation will enable scientists to investigate the evolution of the universe and the role played by mysterious dark matter.
Project leader Dr Salman Habib says: ‘There are two components in the universe: dark matter — which as far as we know, only interacts gravitationally — and conventional matter, or atomic matter.
‘So, if we want to know what the universe is up to, we need to simulate both of these things.’
Scientists have revealed the largest simulation of the universe ever created, simulating an area of 31 billion cubic megaparsecs
When astronomers look at distant galaxies through a powerful telescope like the James Webb Space Telescope they are able to look back in time to the early days of the cosmos.
However, those images only give us snapshots of how the universe once looked.
To get a true god’s-eye view of creation, astronomers need to create what is called a ‘hydrodynamic simulation’.
Rather than just simulating the pull of gravity between different chunks of matter, hydrodynamic simulations get as close as possible to forces which shape cosmic evolution.
Dr Habib says that this requires scientists to simulate ‘gravity as well as all the other physics including hot gas, and the formation of stars, black holes and galaxies. The astrophysical “kitchen sink” so to speak.’
The problem is that these kinds of simulations need vast amounts of computational power to create.
In order to run simulations at all, astronomers have typically left out all the other forces and factors which make hydrodynamic simulations so useful.
Dr Habib says: ‘For example, if we were to simulate a large chunk of the universe surveyed by one of the big telescopes such as the Rubin Observatory in Chile, you’re talking about looking at huge chunks of time — billions of years of expansion.
In this incredible video, you can see as a vast cluster of galaxies condense in the expanding universe. This mindboggling clip (pictured) only shows 0.001 per cent of the whole simulation
This new simulation is on a scale with the largest maps of the cosmos ever created such as the ESA’s Euclid cosmic atlas (pictured)
The simulation captures the formation of galactic filaments such as the Laniakea filament (illustrated) which contains hundreds of thousands of galaxies including the Milky Way
‘Until recently, we couldn’t even imagine doing such a large simulation like that except in the gravity-only approximation.’
To overcome these problems, the researchers used the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Frontier is currently the world’s most powerful supercomputer and is capable of performing more than a quintillion, or a billion-billion, calculations every second.
Even with a computer that fast, emulating the universe isn’t simple and it’s taken more than a decade for scientists to refine and upgrade the code in order to run a hydrodynamic simulation on this scale.
However, earlier this month, researchers were able to use 9,000 of Frontier’s computing nodes to simulate a volume of the expanding universe measuring more than 31 billion cubic megaparsecs.
This is on a scale alongside the biggest astronomical maps of the universe created by the world’s most powerful telescopes.
Critically, this simulation also includes the effects of the mysterious substance known as dark matter.
Dark matter is a theoretical type of particle which doesn’t interact with the atoms and subatomic particles which make up the rest of the universe.
Critically, this simulation also includes the effects of dark matter. This theoretical substance could create vast, unobservable structures between galaxies which have given the universe the extra mass it needs to evolve into the form we observe today. Pictured: a NASA simulation of the formation of dark matter structures in the early universe
The only way that dark matter supposedly affects the universe around it is by exerting a gravitational pull.
Scientists first proposed that this strange substance might exist to explain why the gravitational forces in the universe seem to be stronger than the mass of all the galaxies should produce.
However, since we cannot observe dark matter in any way simulations like this are key to understanding how it might have influenced the evolution of the cosmos.
The team are yet to release any analysis based on the simulation but we should expect some exciting revelations to come.
Dark matter: The mysterious substance that makes up 85% of the universe that scientists cannot confirm
Dark matter is a hypothetical substance said to make up roughly 85 per cent of the universe.
The enigmatic material is invisible because it does not reflect light, and has never been directly observed by scientists.
Astronomers know it to be out there because of its gravitational effects on known matter.
The European Space Agency says: ‘Shine a torch in a completely dark room, and you will see only what the torch illuminates.
Dark matter is a hypothetical substance said to make up roughly 27 per cent of the universe. It is thought to be the gravitational ‘glue’ that holds the galaxies together (artist’s impression)
‘That does not mean that the room around you does not exist.
‘Similarly we know dark matter exists but have never observed it directly.’
The material is thought to be the gravitational ‘glue’ that holds the galaxies together.
Calculations show that many galaxies would be torn apart instead of rotating if they weren’t held together by a large amount of dark matter.
Just five per cent the observable universe consists of known matter such as atoms and subatomic particles.
