Illustris: The Universe in Simulation

The new Harvard-Smithsonian/MIT cosmology simulation from Mark Vogelsberger et. al. is the most detailed simulation of the evolution of the Universe yet. The domain is slightly more than 100 Megaparsecs, and a lot of hydrodynamic details are included. This is perhaps the first simulation to apparently get galaxies and perhaps their central super massive black holes (SMBH) right. Proportions of ellipticals and spirals look quite close to observed. It's a sequence of very pretty pictures, though I found the continual spinning a bit much.  Full screen suggested.


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