Astrophysicists Build Realistic Virtual Universe

sciencehabit writes "In the most detailed effort yet, astrophysicists and cosmologists have modeled the evolution of the universe right down to the formation of individual galaxies. The results of the mammoth computer simulation neatly match multiple astronomical observations, ranging from the distribution of galaxies in massive galaxy clusters to the amounts of neutral hydrogen gas in galaxies large and small (abstract). The findings once again neatly confirm cosmologists' standard theory of the basic ingredients of the universe and how it evolved—a result that may disappoint researchers hoping for new puzzles to solve."

Comments

internal detection

[RichMan]

the big question is are entities in the simulation able to detect it is a simulation.

simulating a phenomena does not validate the model

[jclaer]

Choosing parameters that best simulate a model does not mean that model is correct.

Re:Why are these simulations impressive?

[supertall]

I thought the same thing at first. However, assuming that the simulation implements only the very fundamental building blocks of physics at it's core, it is interesting to see that they translate to match our observations on a macro scale. Given that, it's just a matter of what else we can glean from the simulation runs that we have yet to observe IRL. These new insights don't have to be taken as truth, but rather lead us to new observations.

Re:Cool! Where can I get one?

[wbr1]

Right here: http://universesandbox.com/

Funny

[Anonymous Coward]

I love the part about "new questions to answer". As if "Where did the super dense mass the universe came from, come from, wouldn't be a good question to answer...

Re:really?

[rubycodez]

and apparently also know (without sharing) why the observed mass of the Higgs boson is so tiny even though the max energy times the fermion/boson sum should be huge. wow they have it all figured out...or they "cooked the books"

Re:simulating a phenomena does not validate the mo

[DMUTPeregrine]

If there are no parameters for a model that allow the model to simulate reality, then the model must be incorrect.
If there are parameters for a model that allow the model to simulate reality, then the model may be correct, but may still be incorrect.

This work moves us from the first state to the second, at least when it comes to simulating rather large scale structure.

Re:Keep adjusting until it looks right

[ColdGrits]

Meanwhile, all you ever needed to do was read Genesis to understand what really happened.

Meh, Genesis were never the same since Peter Gabriel left...