Smithsonian and Harvard astronomers create Lumina mapping early universe formation
Astronomers at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Harvard College Observatory have created a super-detailed simulation called Lumina that shows how the universe looked and evolved in its earliest days.
By tracking dark matter and glowing gas, they've mapped out how cosmic structures like galaxies started to form in the first two billion years following the Big Bang.
Lumina checked against JWST images
Built using one of the world's fastest supercomputers, Lumina covers more space and detail than any previous model.
Its predictions will be checked against real images from the James Webb Space Telescope.
As the study's head author, Oliver Zier, a computational physicist with the Center for Astrophysics, puts it, this is a big step in connecting what we imagine about space with what we actually see, and helps us understand our cosmic origins a little better.