Tehdyt toimenpiteet

Modeling the universe

The first seconds of the universe can be studied by means of computations. The universe was created in the big bang about 14 billion years ago. Although the Cosmos has expanded from smaller than an atom to its present dimensions, the laws of nature have remained unchanged. The young universe only a few seconds or minutes old can be studied by combining knowledge of the laws of nature, supercomputing, and observations of the values of physical quantities in the present universe.

The branch of astronomy investigating the entire universe is called cosmology. Thanks to the new discoveries made during the past fifteen years, cosmological research has become a precision science with principles no different from any other research in physics.

The pivotal finding affecting the change in cosmology was the discovery of variations in cosmic background radiation. Background radiation is an electromagnetic echo of the big bang, and it seems to emanate from everywhere in space. Minute differences in background radiation give scientists clues about the conditions and character of the primeval universe.

Mathematics is the language of research in physics. It is used for explaining the universe and for simulating its origin. Although cosmological formulas are simplifications of reality, their computation still requires massive computer capacity.

Cosmological formulas have many variables, but only a few of them are under study at once. Often the workings of an equation are examined in a small, example-like section of time-space. A calculation grid is placed into this sample cube to study the values obtained for variables.

Since the early universe was a thick mixture of elementary particles, knowledge of particle physics, in addition to astronomy, is needed to understand it. In fact, scientists studying the beginning of the universe talk about particle cosmology, a field of science where the very large meets the very small.

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Tehdyt toimenpiteet

Modeling the universe


Sisältö Methods of computational science Applications of scientific computing Modeling the universe Ships and computational fluid dynamics Protein research Drug design Speech recognition and synthetic speech Modeling the human body Modeling in geosciences Geographic information systems Genotype and bioinformatics Grand Challenge research projects in CSC magazines Supercomputers and grids	Tehdyt toimenpiteet Tämä sivu suomeksi Modeling the universe The first seconds of the universe can be studied by means of computations. The universe was created in the big bang about 14 billion years ago. Although the Cosmos has expanded from smaller than an atom to its present dimensions, the laws of nature have remained unchanged. The young universe only a few seconds or minutes old can be studied by combining knowledge of the laws of nature, supercomputing, and observations of the values of physical quantities in the present universe. The branch of astronomy investigating the entire universe is called cosmology. Thanks to the new discoveries made during the past fifteen years, cosmological research has become a precision science with principles no different from any other research in physics. The pivotal finding affecting the change in cosmology was the discovery of variations in cosmic background radiation. Background radiation is an electromagnetic echo of the big bang, and it seems to emanate from everywhere in space. Minute differences in background radiation give scientists clues about the conditions and character of the primeval universe. Mathematics is the language of research in physics. It is used for explaining the universe and for simulating its origin. Although cosmological formulas are simplifications of reality, their computation still requires massive computer capacity. Cosmological formulas have many variables, but only a few of them are under study at once. Often the workings of an equation are examined in a small, example-like section of time-space. A calculation grid is placed into this sample cube to study the values obtained for variables. Since the early universe was a thick mixture of elementary particles, knowledge of particle physics, in addition to astronomy, is needed to understand it. In fact, scientists studying the beginning of the universe talk about particle cosmology, a field of science where the very large meets the very small.