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  • “Exploration is in our nature.” - Carl Sagan

Mat Kaplan • May 08, 2014

Illustris: A realistic virtual universe

This is not your universe unfolding. This is another universe, or a good-sized piece of one, as simulated by Illustris, a software model developed internationally over many years. It took 8,000 processors running in parallel 3 months to build the model. Your desktop PC (if you still had one) would need over 2,000 years. Watch as individual galaxies form, interact with dark matter, gather in clusters, drift, collide and reform over 13.4 billion years, in a cube that is about 33 million light years across. And you thought your lunch today was awesome.

Illustris simulation of the universe
Illustris simulation of the universe Large scale projection through the Illustris volume, centered on the most massive galaxy cluster. Shows dark matter density overlaid with the gas velocity field.Image: Illustris

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