\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nResearchers were able to capture elements of physics in the early Universe, down to scales a million times smaller than the simulated regions, which provided unprecedented detail on properties of early galaxies and how light from these galaxies impacted gas.<\/p>\n
This was accomplished by combining a realistic model of galaxy formation with a new algorithm that tracks how light interacts with gas, as well as a model for cosmic dust.<\/p>\n
With Thesan, researchers can simulate a piece of our Universe spanning over a distance of 300 million light years. The team can then run the simulation forward in time to track and visualise the first appearance and evolution of hundreds of thousands of galaxies within this space, beginning around 400,000 years after the Big Bang, and through the first billion years of existence.<\/p>\n
The simulations revealed a gradual change in the Universe from complete darkness to light.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a bit like water in ice cube trays; when you put it in the freezer, it does take time, but after a while it starts to freeze on the edges and then slowly creeps in,\u201d said Aaron Smith, co-author of the study.\u00a0\u201cThis was the same situation in the early Universe \u2014 it was a neutral, dark cosmos that became bright and ionised as light began to emerge from the first galaxies.\u201d<\/p>\n
How will this aid with observations from the James Webb Space Telescope?<\/h3>\n The simulations were designed to prepare for observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which will be able to\u00a0peer further back in time\u00a0\u2014approximately 13.5 billion years \u2014 than\u00a0predecessors like the Hubble Space Telescope.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of telescopes coming online, like the JWST, are specifically designed to study this epoch,\u201d noted Kannan. \u201cThat is where our simulations come in; they are going to help us interpret real observations of this period and understand what we are seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReal telescope observations and data will soon be compared to Thesan simulations,\u201d said the research team.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that is the interesting part,\u201d added\u00a0study co-author Mark Vogelsberger, an Associate Professor of Physics. \u201cEither our Thesan simulations and model will agree with what JWST finds, which would confirm our picture of the Universe, or there will be a significant disagreement showing that our understanding of the early Universe is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, scientists will not know how the different aspects of their model fares until the first observations come in, which will cover a wide range of topics, including galaxy properties, and the absorption and escape of light in the early Universe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have developed simulations based on what we know,\u201d said Kannan.\u00a0\u201cBut while the scientific community has learned a lot in recent years, there is still quite a bit of uncertainty, especially in these early times when the Universe was very young.\u201d<\/p>\n
The simulations were created using one of the world\u2019s largest supercomputers, the SuperMUC-NG, over the course of 30 million CPU-hours.\u00a0The same simulations would have required more than 3,500 years to complete on a normal computer.<\/p>\n
Additional scientists who make up the Thesan team are Lars Hernquist of the CfA, Enrico Garaldi, Ruediger Pakmor, and Volker Springel, from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.<\/p>\n
To keep up to date with our content,\u00a0subscribe for updates<\/a>\u00a0on our digital publication and newsletter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics has revealed a simulation of the early Universe, which is described to look like fireflies flickering in the darkness. The simulation recreates the early Universe, a time after the Big Bang when the cosmos transformed from a place of complete darkness to a radiant, light-filled environment. This is a is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":19743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[771],"tags":[818,801,821,3477,809],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Simulations of the early Universe revealed by astronomers<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n