Computer simulates Milky Way galaxy formation

MSNBC : With the use of a powerful supercomputer, a team of researchers has produced the first realistic simulation of the formation of the Milky Way galaxy. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Zürich took advantage of 1.4 million processor-hours on NASA’s Pleiades supercomputer, as well as additional supporting simulations at the Swiss National Supercomputing Center. The simulation, which took 9 months, involved tracing the motions of some 60 million particles over more than 13 billion years. According to the research team, the difficulty is in getting the simulations to match up exactly with observations. “Our result shows that a realistic spiral galaxy can be formed based on the basic principles of the cold dark matter paradigm and the physical laws of gravity, fluid dynamics, and radiophysics,” said Lucio Mayer of the University of Zurich, coauthor of a paper describing the simulation, to be published in the Astrophysical Journal.