Despite numerous assumptions that our universe is a computer simulation, in fact, the likelihood of this is extremely small. However, nothing is impossible in the world, so scientists may well observe a variety of life forms in millions of universes. In theory. In fact, astronomers have created eight million universes on a computer. The fact is that the simulation of the origin and further development of universes can tell a lot about ours.
The greatest mystery of the universe
If every time you think about the Universe and what it is like, it seems to you that you do not know anything and do not understand what is actually happening there - this is normal. It is incredibly difficult for our brains to comprehend such concepts as infinity, laniakea and the event horizon of a black hole. And when it comes to dark matter, there is a feeling that dark matter is the greatest mystery of our Universe.
At least scientists today take this point of view. The goal of the researchers when creating 8 million computer simulations of the Universes was the desire to understand what role this mysterious substance has played in the life of our universe since the Big Bang.
Laniakei is approximately 520 million light years in diameter.
It is believed that shortly after the birth of the universe, an invisible and elusive substance called "dark matter" was transformed by the force of gravity into massive clouds called dark matter halos. As the halos grew in size, they attracted the rare hydrogen gas that permeates the universe to combine and form the stars and galaxies we see today. In this theory, dark matter acts as the basis of galaxies, determining the processes of formation, merging and development over time.
To better understand the impact of dark matter on the formation of the universe, scientists at the University of Arizona created their own universes using a supercomputer. 2000 processors worked without interruption for three weeks, simulating over 8 million unique universes. Surprisingly, each universe obeyed a unique set of rules to help researchers understand the connection between dark matter and galactic evolution.
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Greatest Computer Simulation
The research is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and is the first in its field. Scientists have previously created single simulations that focused on simulating individual galaxies. The new program was named Universe Machine. She continuously created millions of universes, each of which contained 12 million galaxies. Moreover, all these millions of universes have evolved from the Big Bang to the present day.
This is what a computer simulation of the universe might look like.
According to experts, the most interesting thing is that scientists can now use all the available data on the evolution of galaxies - their number, number of stars and ways of star formation - and combine them into a comprehensive picture of the last 13 billion years of the Universe. Note that creating an exact copy of our Universe or even a galaxy would require incredible computing power. Therefore, scientists have focused on two key properties of galaxies: the total mass of stars and the rate of star formation.
According to the study, the star formation rate of stars in the galaxy is closely related to the mass of the dark matter halo. In those galaxies where the mass of the dark matter halo was similar to the dark matter halo of the Milky Way, the star formation rate was the highest. This suggests that in more massive galaxies, star formation is being held back by more black holes.
Astronomers 'observations have challenged scientists' suggestions that dark matter suppresses star formation in the early universe. In fact, smaller galaxies are more likely to form stars at a faster rate.
In the future, scientists plan to expand the Universe Machine to work out even more options in which dark matter can affect the properties of galaxies, including the shape of their development, the mass of black holes and the frequency of transformation of stars into supernovae.
Dizzying, isn't it? Do you think scientists will be able to solve the greatest mysteries of the universe?
Lyubov Sokovikova
