Mira, Mira on the Wall, What happened during the Big Bang?

An article recently appeared regarding a new super computer that will run the most complex universe simulation ever attempted –the epitome of a virtual machine. The supercomputer, Mira, is due to describe the origin, evolution, and structure of the 13-billion-year existence of the universe in about 2 weeks. The computation will begin in October, piggy-backing on other sky-mapping projects that provided a vast amount of knowledge on the structure of the current universe.

The challenge plaguing cosmologists throughout history is figuring out exactly what occurred in the first nascent galaxies. In order to explore the beginning, they have to build a new universe. They have crafted mathematical narratives that explain why some of the galaxies flew apart from one another while others clusters into what we see around us today. Mira's trillions-of-particles simulation will cram over 12 billion years worth of space evolution into just two weeks. Can you imagine the size of that cloud storage data center?

By the end of the two weeks, cosmologists hope that the final product will resemble what we see in the current universe mappings. With the technological advances, the supercomputers in the late 2010s are due to be a thousand times more powerful than Mira. These virtual universes will serve as testing grounds for some of the most sophisticated ideas about the cosmos ever.

To read more of the article on Mira by The Atlantic, click here.