Recreating a Slice of the Universe

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and their colleagues at the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS) have invented a new computational approach that can accurately follow the birth and evolution of thousands of galaxies over billions of years.
For the first time it is now possible to build a universe from scratch that brims with galaxies like we observe around us.
"We've created the full variety of galaxies we see in the local universe," said Mark Vogelsberger (CfA).
Our cosmic neighborhood is littered with majestic spiral galaxies like Andromeda, the Pinwheel, and the Whirlpool. Spirals are common, but previous simulations had trouble creating them. Instead, they produced lots of blobby galaxies clumped into balls, without the broad disks and outstretched arms of a typical spiral.
The new software, called Arepo, solves this problem. Created by Volker Springel (HITS), Arepo generates a full-fledged simulation of the universe, taking as input only the observed afterglow of the Big Bang and evolving forward in time for 14 billion years.
"We took all the advantages of previous codes and removed the disadvantages," explained Springel.

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http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2012/pr201223.html