POPULAR MECHANICS - Scientists have combined a powerful simulator with data about the universe to explain a large discrepancy in our understanding. The simulation suite, called PRIYA, debuted last year and is helping scientists study a special phenomenon of hydrogen atoms in deep outer space. Now, in a new study, PRIYA has enabled scientists from the University of California Riverside to map likely locations of dark matter based on the light signature of hydrogen “forests” that form around sources of gravity. Their research appears now in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
High-tech simulation software has helped astrophysicists and astronomers take a closer look at far-away phenomena, and allowed us to confirm or fine-tune our theories about the universe. A simulation like this is essentially a gigantic, interactive graph of individual particles and the forces that are acting on them. Processing so much data requires a supercomputer that can crunch away for long periods of time. Using a supercomputer shortens that time down from years or even decades on less powerful computers.
In a UC-Riverside statement, senior author Simeon Bird described the effects seen in this study as “shadow puppetry, where we guess the character placed between the light and the screen based on its silhouette.” Often, scientists eliminate the shadows we do understand in order to theorize that something we can’t yet observe, like dark matter, is filling the rest.