Boner: It is still confusing...

Astrophysicists have created the most realistic computer simulation of the universe's evolution to date, tracking activity from the Big Bang to now -- a time span of around 14 billion years -- in high resolution.

Created by a team at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics (CfA) in collaboration with researchers at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), the Arepo software provides detailed imagery of different galaxies in the local universe using a technique known as "moving mesh".

Unlike previous model simulators, such as the Gadget code, Arepo's hydrodynamic model replicates the gaseous formations following the Big Bang by using a virtual, flexible grid that has the capacity to move to match the motions of the gas, stars, dark matter and dark energy that make up space -- it's like a virtual model of the cosmic web, able to bend and flex to support the matter and celestial bodies that make up the universe. Old simulators instead used a more regimented, fixed, cubic grid.

"We took all the advantages of previous codes and removed the disadvantages," explained Volker Springel, the HITS astrophysicist who built the software. Springel, an expert in galaxy formation who helped build the Millennium Simulation to trace the evolution of 10 billion particles, used Harvard's Odyssey supercomputer to run the simulation. Its 1,024 processor cores allowed the team to compress 14 billion years worth of cosmic history in the space of a few months.

The results are spiral galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda that actually look like spiral galaxies -- not the blurred blobs depicted by previous simulators -- generated from data input that stretches as far back as the afterglow of the Big Bang, thus portraying a dramatic cosmic evolution (see the above video for a sneak peek of that evolution from four billion years after the Big Bang).

"We find that Arepo leads to significantly higher star formation rates for galaxies in massive haloes and to more extended gaseous disks in galaxies, which also feature a thinner and smoother morphology than their Gadget counterparts," the team states in a paper describing the technology.

Though the feat is impressive -- CfA astrophysicist Debora Sijacki compares the high-resolution simulation's improvement over previous models to that of the 24.5-metre aperture Giant Magellan Telescope's improvement over all telescopes -- the team aim to generate simulations of larger areas of the universe. If this is achieved, the team will have created not only the most realistic, but the biggest universe simulation ever.



>> ^BoneRemake:

this video is a waste without addition information.
what am I looking at. spiraling gas' or something.
what is the significance, why did nine people upvote something they probably do not understand.
what part of the universe is this ? why didnt it start at the beginning ?
WHY WHY FUCKING WHY.

I like the Pink Floyd soundtracks ('La Vallee' and 'More'), mostly because it was music of an era and so unlike anything before or since...

(Little known 'rumour' is that the 23-minute epic on the B-side of the Meddle album, Echoes, was composed to serve as a soundtrack to the final sequence of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" -- entitled Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite. A different song was ultimately chosen for the film, but one can, if one was so inclined, cue up the song at the title card for this sequence and notice how nicely it fits with the psychedelic imagery of this portion of the movie.... Not so unlike Dark Side & the Wizard of Oz).

Honestly, I never understood the ending until I learned how others interpreted it.

http://www.kubrick2001.com/

>> ^spoco2:

And in the end. I am one of those people that finds 2001 to be an unsatisfying movie. It has some awesome moments, some iconic shots and scenes, but overall it is a bit rubbish in it's conclusion.
From listening to Arthur C Clark, it would seem that's because they didn't have a good story to begin with, and I think it shows. It seemed to be a case of 'we've got these ideas that'd be good to make a movie out of'... and they just went ahead with making that movie before actually creating a workable narrative from those ideas.

Hang in there...it gets better!

>> ^spoco2:

My god if that isn't the cheesiest version of Sprach Zarathustra I've ever heard.
This does not bode well for the rest of this doco

Your video, 2001: A Space Odyssey (2012 Trailer Recut), has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

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Thanks!

In reply to this comment by ZappaDanMan:
*promote

Odyssey 2 is still the pinnacle of technical achievement to date. Often when I play Battlefield-3 I think how ridiculous it is to constantly paint these city scenes when I could simply tape a transparent overlay over my monitor.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'boston terrier, bella, plank, planking, couch, space odyssey' to 'boston terrier, bella, plank, planking, couch, space odyssey, also sprach zarathustra' - edited by Fusionaut

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Sure, I'd still like one. But then I'd have to start a collection of *rare* consoles: Odyssey 2, Sears Telegames version of 2600, Atari Lynx, Coleco Adam etc. etc. Could get pricey.>> ^ant:

>> ^dag:
Vectrex was cool - I wanted one - back in the day.

How about now?

Mike Parsons at Jaws. From the movie Billabong Odyssey. I'm pretty sure this has been sifted before because I tried to sift it years ago.

Is it me, or was this "robot" designed to seem similar to the character of David Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Actually 2001: A Space Odyssey got it right too where Dave Bowman was briefly in space without a suit due to that darned Hal 3000!

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Orchestra fail, 2001 Space Odyssey theme' to 'Orchestra fail, 2001 Space Odyssey theme, thus spoke zarathustra, stauss' - edited by dystopianfuturetoday

Wow... that's like the end of 2001 A Space Odyssey, except that it makes more sense