Space

Computers Might Point Towards the Missing Matter

The universe hides large amounts of matter

By Gabriel Gache, Science News Editor

7th of December 2007, 11:29 GMT

Adjust text size:

Partial image generated by the computer simulation

Simulations show a large amount of the interstellar gas that forms the filaments between galaxy clusters and that has so far been hiding in the intergalactic clouds of gas, also known as the Warm-Hot Interplanetary Medium. The discovery was made through one of the most challenging simulations ever performed, which consisted of using about 2.5 percent of the visible universe to create a region of 1.5 billion light years across.

The algorithm behind the experiment took professor Jack Burns just about ten years to code the program driving the simulation that includes all the possible variables of the universe, back until the moment before the Big Bang. It uses advanced numerical techniques to model the matter as it collapses under the influence of gravity and becomes compact enough to form structures such as galaxies and the cosmic filaments between them.

Since the prediction regarding the existence of dark matter in 1998, the model of the universe postulates that it is formed of three quarters dark energy, about one fifth dark matter and only four percent of the ordinary matter we experience every day. Furthermore, most of the ordinary matter consists mostly of baryons, a large quantity lightweight elements, and other heavy elements. According to recent research about 40 percent of the quantity of baryons present in the visible universe is not accounted for and might be present in the Warm-Hot Interplanetary Medium.

According to Burns these filaments present in the WHIM might be detected by future telescopes and understanding their nature may provide a key to understand more about the mission of baryons in the visible universe. In the effort to detect WHIM, astrophysicists use two 10-meter telescopes located at the south pole, plus another telescope represented by the 25-meter Cornell-Caltech Atacama Telescope, built in Chile.

The last one has been specially designed to make observations in the sub-millimeter domain, situated between the infrared and radio spectrum, which will capture radiation from the time the first galaxies appeared and collect data about the processes that took place back then. The other two telescopes operate in both the millimeter, sub-millimeter and microwave wavelengths to study the CMB remnant of the early hot state of the universe. The CMB variations might be able to reveal if and where the massive filament structures are present.

The simulations where made at the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, by CU-Boulder professor Jack Burns who ran a 500,000 processor hour code through the two supercomputers, thus generating about 60 terabytes of information. Their findings will be published in the December 10 issue of Astrophysical Journal magazine.

According to Burns, the code used to simulate a small part of the universe could be used to study the Earth's atmosphere and the changes in clime.

TAGS:

universe | big bang | galaxies | filamens

SEARCH THE NEWS ARCHIVE :

Today's News | Yesterday's News | News Archive

User opinions:

No user comments yet.

Be the first to express your opinion using the form below!

Share your opinion:

SUBMIT PROGRAM \| ADVERTISE \| GET HELP \| SEND US FEEDBACK \| RSS FEEDS \| ENTER NEWS SITE \| ENGLISH BOARD \| ROMANIAN FORUM
© 2001 - 2008 Softpedia. All rights reserved. Softpedia™ and the Softpedia™ logo are registered trademarks of SoftNews NET SRL.	Copyright Information \| Privacy Policy \| Terms of Use \| Update your software \| Archive

NEWS CATEGORIES: