SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
How black holes shape the cosmos
Astrophysicists from Heidelberg, Garching, and the USA gained new insights into the formation and evolution of galaxies. They calculated how black holes influence the distribution of dark matter, how heavy elements are produced and distributed throughout the cosmos, and where magnetic fields originate. This was possible by developing and programming a new simulation model for the universe, which created the most extensive simulations of this kind to date. First results of the "IllustrisTNG" project have now been published in three articles in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. These findings should help to answer fundamental questions in cosmology.
Every galaxy harbours a supermassive black hole at its center. A new computer model now shows how these gravity monsters influence the large-scale structure of our universe. The research team includes scientists from the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS), Heidelberg University, the Max-Planck-Institutes for Astronomy (MPIA, Heidelberg) and for Astrophysics (MPA, Garching), US universities Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as the Center for Computational Astrophysics in New York. The project, "Illustris–The Next Generation" (IllustrisTNG) is the most complete simulation of its kind to date. Based on the basic laws of physics, the simulation shows how our cosmos evolved since the Big Bang. Adding to the predecessor Illustris project, IllustrisTNG includes some of the physical processes which play a crucial role in this evolution for the very first time in such an extensive simulation.
TNG Project's web site: http://www.tng-project.org/
Pictures and videos: http://www.tng-project.org/media/
First results from the IllustrisTNG simulations: matter and galaxy clustering (DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx3304) (DX)
First results from the IllustrisTNG simulations: the galaxy colour bimodality (DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx3040) (DX)
First results from the IllustrisTNG simulations: the stellar mass content of groups and clusters of galaxies (DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx3112) (DX)
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:12AM
No. We know quite well that black holes exist because we can observe them, through the (often dramatic) effect they have on their surroundings. An active black hole is the exact opposite of dark.
And dark matter is also necessary to explain our observations. As far as I know, there's no alternative model that explains everything dark matter explains (and yes, that's true explanation, you cannot get arbitrary effects out of your dark matter; dark matter is an actual falsifiable theory, and thus scientific, while I don't see how you would falsify angels).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.