Astrophysicist John Dubinski has been running simulations on his supercomputer of galaxies forming, colliding into each other, and otherwise moving around as they are wont to do. Last year he compiled nine animations onto a DVD, wrapped them up with "the soundworlds of renaissance and baroque counterpoint, free improvisation, Middle-Eastern music, minimalism, techno and electronica to create a musical feast that crosses time and dimension," and sold Gravitas.
As of this week, he's begun giving the DVD away for free via torrent, but he's posted the series of animations on YouTube, making my day far, far happier than otherwise possible.
The cosmic cruise (above) is pretty fantastic, flying "straight through a 130 million particle simulation of dark matter travelling hundreds of millions light years over 14 billion years" with illuminated "dark matter particles so that we can watch the formation of the cosmic web - the foundation of all structure in the prevailing model of cosmology."
My favorite, though, is the spiral metamorphosis rendered in 3D--and I don't even have 3D glasses (included when you actually buy the DVD). Enough squinting reveals a pseudo-3D look at "an exquisite ballet of mutual annihilation and transformation into an elliptical galaxy" as the Milky Way collides with Andromeda.
This obviously has become my plans for the night--or weekend--but it's only whetted my appetite for the WorldWide Telescope unveiled today at the TED Conference. It's still in alpha, so no word on when I'll actually be able to use it. When that day comes, Microsoft's virtual space program will "[take] the best images from the greatest telescopes on Earth ... and in space ... and [assemble] them into a seamless, holistic view of the universe."
Right before it steals my heart. Thanks for being so cool, Space. I love you too.
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