Photo credit: Tomoaki Ishiyama
An international team of researchers has generated an entire virtual universe for anyone to explore for free on the cloud. Called Uchuu (“Outer Space” in Japanese), this is currently the largest and most realistic simulation of the universe yet, consisting of 2.1 trillion particles in a computational cube spanning an unprecedented 9.63 billion light-years to a side. To put things into perspective, this is approximately three-quarters the distance between Earth and the most distant observed galaxies. Read more for a video and how to explore for yourself.
This simulation mainly focuses on the large-scale structure of the Universe, including the strange halos of dark matter which control not only the formation of galaxies, but also the fate of the universe itself. Whether it be the largest galaxy clusters or the smallest galaxies, it can be found in Uchuu. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the individual stars and planets aren’t resolved, so you won’t be able to scour for intelligent alien civilization quite yet in Uchuu. Explore it here now.
- LEGO NASA Space Set - This adult LEGO set features the Space Shuttle Discovery and the Hubble Space Telescope from NASA’s 1990 STS-31 mission,...
- Solar System Exploration - Unlock the mysteries of our solar system with this engaging 2,354-piece project, packed with authentic details and...
- Shuttle Features Galore - The space shuttle model has an opening payload bay, retractable landing gear, opening cockpit, moving elevons, space arm,...
Uchuu is like a time machine: we can go forward, backward and stop in time, we can ‘zoom in’ on a single galaxy or ‘zoom out’ to visualize a whole cluster, we can see what is really happening at every instant and in every place of the Universe from its earliest days to the present, being an essential tool to study the Cosmos,” said Julia F. Ereza, a Ph.D. student at IAA-CSIC who uses Uchuu to study the large-scale structure of the Universe.
