Illustris Simulation of the Universe
			
		
		
		
			How did we get here?
Click play, sit back, and watch. 
A new computer simulation 
of the evolution of the universe -- the largest and most sophisticated yet produced -- 
provides new insight into how 
galaxies formed and 
new perspectives into 
humanity's place in the universe. 
The Illustris project -- the largest of its type yet -- 
exhausted 20 million CPU hours following 
12 billion resolution elements spanning a cube 35 million 
light years 
on a side as it evolved over 13 billion years.
The simulation 
is the first to track matter into the 
formation of a wide variety of galaxy types.
As the virtual universe evolves, some of the matter expanding with the 
universe soon gravitationally condenses to form filaments, 
galaxies, and 
clusters of galaxies.
The above video takes the perspective of a virtual camera circling part of this changing universe, first showing the evolution of 
dark matter, then 
hydrogen gas coded by temperature 
(0:45), 
then heavy elements such as 
helium and 
carbon 
(1:30), 
and then back to dark matter 
(2:07).
On the lower left the time since the 
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 
Illustris and the 
real universe do exist and are being studied, including why 
the simulation 
produces an overabundance of old stars.