Scientists Recreate 2 Billion Years of the Early Universe
Summary
Researchers created Lumina, a computer simulation that models the evolution of the early universe from about 45 million years after the Big Bang through its first 2 billion years. The model tracks dark matter, gas, stars, and radiation, and scientists can compare its predictions with telescope observations.Key Facts
- Lumina models a region of space about 1.6 billion light-years wide.
- The simulation contains around half a trillion computational elements, including dark matter particles and gas cells.
- Researchers ran Lumina on the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
- The model is about 100 times larger in volume than earlier simulations, according to MIT.
- Lumina indicates that radiation from early stars and galaxies drove most hydrogen reionization, when radiation stripped electrons from hydrogen atoms.
- Astronomers can compare the simulation's predictions with observations from the James Webb Space Telescope.
- The MIT team plans to make Lumina available to other scientists for further comparisons with telescope data.
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