New "Lumina" Simulation Traces Two Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
Physicists from MIT, Harvard and other institutions released the Lumina simulation, which models the universe from the end of the cosmic dark age to the formation of early galaxies across a volume 100 times larger than previous efforts.
A collaborative team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and other institutions has unveiled a computer simulation called "Lumina" that models the first two billion years of the universe’s evolution. The simulation begins roughly 45 million years after the Big Bang, when neutral hydrogen created a cosmic dark age, and follows the emergence of the first stars, galaxies and large-scale structures.
Lumina covers a region about 1.6 billion light-years across, a volume the team says is roughly 100 times larger than that of earlier high-resolution simulations. "One of Lumina's major advantages is its sheer size," said MIT physicist Xuejian (Jacob) Shen, a co-author of the study. "It produces enormous populations of simulated galaxies, finally allowing us to make comparisons with the very large galaxy samples that upcoming surveys will observe."
The results were presented in a paper published on Oct. 26 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and in an accompanying press release. Researchers plan to compare Lumina’s predictions with observations from the James Webb Space Telescope and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to test current models of cosmic physics.
The simulation is publicly accessible through the project’s website, enabling both scientists and the broader public to explore the modeled universe.