A UA-led team of scientists generated millions of different universes on a supercomputer, each of which obeyed different physical theories for how galaxies should form. (Image: NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz and the HFF Team/STScI)

Galactic Evolution Examined by ‘Universe Machine’

Researchers have turned to a massive supercomputer — dubbed the ‘UniverseMachine’ — to model the formation of stars and galaxies. In the process, they created a staggering 8 million ‘virtual universes’ with almost 10¹⁴ galaxies.

To say that the origins and evolution of galaxies and the stars they host have been an enigma that scientists have sought to explore for decades is the ultimate understatement.

In fact, desire to understand how the stars form and why they cluster the way they do, predates science, religion and possibly civilisation itself. As long as humans could think and reason — way before we knew what either a ‘star’ or a ‘galaxy’ was— we looked to the heavens with a desire to have knowledge of its nature.

We now know more than we ever have, but the heavens and their creation still hold mysteries for us. Observing real galaxies can only provide researchers with a ‘snapshot’ of how they appear at one moment. Time is simply too vast and we exist for far too brief a spell to observe galaxies as they evolve.

Now a team of researchers led by the University of Arizona have turned to supercomputer simulations to bring us closer…