Video: Eagle Simulations Show Temperature of Cosmic Gas

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This video shows a volume rendering of a test simulation for the Eagle project. The intensity corresponds to the density of cosmic gas, whilst color encodes its temperature. Red roughly corresponds to 100,000 degrees Kelvin (considered ‘warm’ by astronomers), whilst white corresponds to 10-100 million degrees Kelvin.

The core aim of the EAGLE project is to generate a computational model of the evolution of the Universe, starting from the Big Bang and evolving to the present day some 14 billion years later. The model will examine not only the formation and evolution of galaxies, but also their complex interactions with the gas that surrounds them and occupies the vast regions of space between them. In contrast to other simulation projects, prior to its initiation in late 2012, EAGLE was preceeded by an intensive 2 year development & testing phase designed to ensure that, when complete, the simulation will yield an accurate representation of the present-day Universe that we observe around us.

The visualization was created by Rob Crain (Leiden Observatory, NL) and Jim Geach (Herts University, UK) using their Typhoon toolkit.