Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2023 December 31 IFRAME: [2]https://www.youtube.com/embed/QSivvdIyeG4?si=CNXSnbIN_HXYZG0e?rel=0 Illustris: A Simulation of the Universe Video Credit: [3]Illustris Collaboration, [4]NASA, [5]PRACE, [6]XSEDE, [7]MIT, [8]Harvard CfA; Music: The Poisoned Princess ([9]Media Right Productions) Explanation: How did we get here? [10]Click play, sit back, and watch. A [11]computer simulation of the evolution of the universe provides insight into how [12]galaxies formed and perspectives into [13]humanity's place in the universe. The [14]Illustris project [15]exhausted 20 million CPU hours in 2014 following 12 billion resolution elements spanning a cube 35 million [16]light years on a side as it evolved over 13 billion years. [17]The simulation tracks matter into the [18]formation of a wide variety of [19]galaxy types. As the virtual universe evolves, some of the matter expanding with the [20]universe soon gravitationally condenses to form filaments, [21]galaxies, and [22]clusters of galaxies. The [23]featured video takes the perspective of a virtual camera circling part of this changing universe, first showing the evolution of [24]dark matter, then [25]hydrogen gas coded by temperature ([26]0:45), then heavy elements such as [27]helium and [28]carbon ([29]1:30), and then back to [30]dark matter ([31]2:07). On the lower left the time since the [32]Big Bang is listed, while on the lower right the type of matter being shown is listed. Explosions (0:50) depict galaxy-center supermassive black holes expelling bubbles of hot gas. Interesting discrepancies between [33]Illustris and the [34]real universe have been studied, including why [35]the simulation produced an overabundance of old stars. Tomorrow's picture: a grand design __________________________________________________________________ [36]< | [37]Archive | [38]Submissions | [39]Index | [40]Search | [41]Calendar | [42]RSS | [43]Education | [44]About APOD | [45]Discuss | [46]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [47]Robert Nemiroff ([48]MTU) & [49]Jerry Bonnell ([50]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [51]Specific rights apply. [52]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [53]ASD at [54]NASA / [55]GSFC, [56]NASA Science Activation & [57]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://www.youtube.com/embed/QSivvdIyeG4?si=CNXSnbIN_HXYZG0e?rel=0 3. https://www.illustris-project.org/people/ 4. https://www.nasa.gov/ 5. http://www.prace-ri.eu/ 6. https://www.xsede.org/ 7. https://physics.mit.edu/faculty/mark-vogelsberger/ 8. https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/ 9. https://www.mediarightproductions.com/ 10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSivvdIyeG4 11. https://www.illustris-project.org/media/ 12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_formation 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html 14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjSFR40SY58 15. https://i.pinimg.com/474x/0c/ba/94/0cba94c29324b1108fd7b5831742961c.jpg 16. https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html 17. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014Natur.509..177V/abstract 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120717.html 19. https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-are-galaxies/ 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210802.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130808.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100502.html 23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A23Ro3kiB1E 24. https://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/dark_matter/ 25. https://periodic.lanl.gov/1.shtml 26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSivvdIyeG4&t=0m45s 27. https://periodic.lanl.gov/2.shtml 28. https://periodic.lanl.gov/6.shtml 29. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSivvdIyeG4&t=1m30s 30. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter 31. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSivvdIyeG4&t=2m07s 32. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang 33. http://www.illustris-project.org/ 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120813.html 35. http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.1418 36. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231230.html 37. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 38. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 39. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 40. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 41. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 42. https://apod.com/feed.rss 43. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 44. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 45. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=231231 46. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240101.html 47. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 48. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 49. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 50. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 51. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 52. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 53. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 54. https://www.nasa.gov/ 55. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 56. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 57. http://www.mtu.edu/