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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsScientists simulate the Milky Way’s formation by numerically evolving matter and gas in an expanding-universe setting, then modeling processes such as star formation, stellar feedback and black-hole growth. They compare the resulting galaxies and histories with observations, including data on the Milky Way’s stars. These are physics-based models—not recordings of our Galaxy’s exact past—and their results depend in part on processes too small to resolve directly.
What is a cosmological simulation?
A cosmological simulation is a numerical model that follows how structure develops in an expanding universe. Rather than start with a finished Milky Way and animate it backward, scientists begin with early-universe conditions and calculate how matter evolves toward the present. The Illustris Project describes its simulation as starting from conditions resembling the universe about 300,000 years after the Big Bang.
Gravity draws matter into structures, while the gas that makes up stars and galaxies moves and changes under additional physical processes. The simulation’s output can show a galaxy’s evolving structure and provide a record of how its modeled stars, gas and other components developed.
How do scientists build a Milky Way simulation?
- Set the cosmological starting conditions. Researchers specify an early universe consistent with a cosmological framework and numerical conditions for the simulation.
- Calculate gravity and gas motion. The model advances the gravitational interactions of dark matter and other mass components, while hydrodynamics—the calculation of gas motion—tracks how gas flows. Illustris uses the AREPO code’s moving, unstructured mesh, whose cells move with the gas. The IllustrisTNG project describes using a moving Voronoi mesh for magnetohydrodynamics and a split Tree-PM approach for gravity.
- Add galaxy-formation physics. Models account for processes including gas cooling, star formation, stellar evolution, chemical enrichment, stellar feedback and outflows, and the formation, growth and feedback of supermassive black holes. These processes help determine what visible galaxies become, beyond what gravity alone predicts.
- Represent what the computer cannot resolve. A simulation cannot directly follow every relevant scale, including all turbulent motions in the interstellar medium or the small sites where stars and black holes form. Researchers use subgrid physics—prescriptions for the effects of processes below the simulation’s resolution—to represent their influence. The details of these prescriptions are part of the model, not direct calculations of every small-scale event. The technical description of the IllustrisTNG model discusses its physics and this limitation in Pillepich et al. (2017).
- Choose a design suited to the question. A large cosmological volume can produce many galaxies in varied environments; a zoom-in simulation devotes higher resolution to a selected region while retaining its cosmological surroundings. Those designs offer different strengths rather than a universal ranking.
- Compare results with observations. Researchers test simulated galaxies and populations against real observations. The comparison constrains the model, but a match does not prove that every inferred event in a galaxy’s past happened exactly as simulated.
How do scientists model gas and star formation?
Gas is not just background material in a galaxy simulation. Its movement, cooling and interaction with other processes influence where stars can form and how a galaxy changes. The simulation calculates gas dynamics, then applies models for star formation and the effects of stars as they evolve. Feedback can return energy and material to surrounding gas or drive outflows, changing the conditions for later star formation.
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Black holes add another set of modeled processes. Simulations represent their formation and growth, as well as feedback that can affect gas in and around a galaxy. Because some of the relevant events occur below the model’s resolution, their effects are encoded in subgrid prescriptions rather than resolved as individual physical sites.
What is a zoom-in simulation, and how does it compare with a large-volume project?
A zoom-in simulation focuses computational resolution on a selected halo or small set of galaxies, while keeping that target in its larger cosmological environment. Large-volume projects instead emphasize producing many galaxies and environments. Some designs combine aspects of both.
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| Approach | What it prioritizes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Large cosmological volume | Many galaxies and a range of environments; useful for studying populations. | IllustrisTNG includes TNG50, which the project description reports contains roughly 100 Milky Way-mass analogues. |
| High-resolution zoom-in | More resolution devoted to selected Milky Way-sized galaxies and their surroundings. | Auriga is a high-resolution cosmological zoom-in project for Milky Way-sized galaxies. |
The distinction is about the question each design can answer well: a larger sample helps examine populations and environments, while a zoom-in approach prioritizes detail in chosen systems. TNG50 combines a cosmological volume with a sample of Milky Way-mass analogues; it is not simply one of those two designs at the expense of the other.
How do astronomers know whether a simulation is realistic?
They compare its predictions with observations of real galaxies and the Milky Way. Gaia’s measurements of stellar positions and motions help astronomers investigate the Galaxy’s composition, formation and evolution. NASA describes Gaia’s mapping goal as covering about 1% of the Milky Way’s approximately 100 billion stars; that is a mission goal reported on the NASA Gaia page, not a claim that Gaia has measured every star.
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Researchers can also compare simulated data with observations in a way designed to resemble what an observer would see. Auriga has released mock catalogues based on Gaia DR2, enabling such comparisons. Agreement with observed properties is evidence that a model is useful under the tested conditions; it does not uniquely establish the Galaxy’s precise sequence of past events.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can you explore the simulation data yourself?
Yes. The IllustrisTNG public data access page describes released simulation outputs, documentation, tutorials, API access, catalog tools, visualizations and browser-based JupyterLab. Using released data for analysis is different from running the original, computationally intensive cosmological simulation.
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Where can you learn more?
- OpenStax Astronomy 2e: The Formation of the Galaxy offers textbook background on the Milky Way’s formation.
- Galaxy Formation, third edition, by Malcolm S. Longair is an advanced astrophysical cosmology and galaxy-formation textbook.
- Galaxies by Or Graur is a broader introduction that includes Milky Way structure and how galaxies form and evolve.
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