Galaxy Formation in a Magnetic Universe

Explanation: How did we get here? We know that we live on a planet orbiting a star orbiting a galaxy, but how did all of this form? To understand details better, astrophysicists upgraded the famous Illustris Simulation into IllustrisTNG -- now the most sophisticated computer model of how galaxies evolved in our universe. Specifically, this featured video tracks magnetic fields from the early universe ( redshift 5) until today ( redshift 0). Here blue represents relatively weak magnetic fields , while white depicts strong. These B fields are closely matched with galaxies and galaxy cluster s. As the simulation begins, a virtual camera circles the virtual Illustris TNG universe showing a young region -- 30-million light year s across -- to be quite filamentary. Gravity causes galaxies to form and merge as the universe expands and evolves. At the end, the simulated IllustrisTNG universe is a good statistical match to our present real universe, although some interesting differences arise -- for example a discrepancy involving the power in radio waves emitted by rapidly moving charged particles.

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