Simulating the universe

From Gizmodo and the Atlantic Magazine

Over a span of two weeks in October, the Mira supercomputer will crank away nonstop, processing quadrillions of operations every second — something that few other machines are currently capable of doing. It will simultaneously track trillions of particles as they move, expand and react to each other according to the laws of physics. 

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[R]esearchers at the Argonne National Laboratory are interested in seeing exactly how stars — and entire galaxies — expand, clump together and form the filament structures. The behaviour has led scientists over the years to compare the universe to a web-like structure. The simulation will begin with the universe shortly after the big bang, then it will simulate a time lapse lasting 12 billion years to see if our theories of astrophysics hold up.

Supposing that the experiment does validate centuries of research, we can then begin to move forward. As our understanding increases and supercomputers become more powerful, we can begin to explore crazier ideas, like the possibility that there’s more than one universe out there