Dwarf galaxy dance: by Nature Video

This beautiful animation shows how exploding stars are a key force in shaping dwarf galaxies. Fabio Governato and colleagues present computer simulations that appear to have solved a longstanding problem in cosmology — namely, how the standard cold dark matter model of galaxy formation can give rise to the dwarf galaxies we see around us.
Read the original research here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature08640

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• astronomy
• cosmology
• galaxies
• star
• space

[RAHMELBASS]

That was nice.

[amarillo275]

Lovely!

[321beth321]

Magnificent! 

[lee155912000]

This is an awesome simulation!

The two people who disliked this video must be dimwits who don't understand the magnitude of this sim.

[kasuha]

Majority of mass already there is dark matter. And the supernova is sure not alone in the region, too... so I don't see any _major_ mass loss anywhere.

[astrospiff]

...unbinding from sudden mass loss.

[kasuha]

I'd definitely like to know the mechanics behind this model. Supernova explosions are driven by electromagnetic interaction (photon pressure) and if dark matter does not interact electromagnetically (i.e. through photons) the only way to drive matter out of center is by gravity - but I fail to see gravitational mechanism that makes such giant hole in dark matter while leaving all normal matter stars in the region untouched.

[PlatypusNose]

...

[PlatypusNose]

wow...

[astrospiff]

Actually, the whole project did take about one million of computer hours to finish. This single simulation alone took about 200.000. It was run on a supercomputer, using up to 1000 processors at the same time.