🔭 A Supercomputer Built the Biggest Simulation of The Universe
The Universe is huge, and studying it in real time is impossible. So far, only computer simulations allow us to try to understand the evolution and physics of the cosmos—from its origin to the mysteries of black holes and dark matter.
The ExaSky project provides the largest astrophysical simulation of the Universe to date. The first results were published in late November. The simulation measures over 31 billion cubic megaparsecs (1 megaparsec is about 3.6 million light-years).
The video shows only 0.001% of the model—this volume is several billion times larger than the entire Milky Way.
Frontier, a 1.1 exaFLOPS supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S., ran the simulation. In one second, it performs more calculations than 100,000 PlayStation 5. Not long ago, Frontier was the fastest in the world until the El Captian supercomputer topped the ranking in mid-November.
Why it's important for science
🚀 ExaSky will help study the evolution and physics of the cosmos, exploring the mysterious nature of dark matter, which makes up to 85% of the mass of the Universe.
🚀 Computer modeling allows to conduct research and calculations in a "time machine" mode: speed up time, rewind it, zoom in and out.
🚀 Algorithms build the most comprehensive interactive star maps in history, generate catalogs of galaxies, and predict their structure and interactions with other galaxies and dark matter.
“Until recently, we couldn't even imagine doing such a large simulation like that,” says Salman Habib, physicist and project lead.
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