Illustris project

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The Illustris project is an ongoing series of astrophysical simulations run by an international collaboration of scientists.[1] The aim is to study the processes of galaxy formation and evolution in the universe with a comprehensive physical model. Early results were described in a number of publications[2][3][4] following widespread press coverage.[5][6][7] The project publicly released all data produced by the simulations in April 2015. Key developers of the Illustris simulation have been Volker Springel (Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik) and Mark Vogelsberger (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The Illustris simulation framework and galaxy formation model has been used for two particularly noteworthy spin-off projects: Auriga and IllustrisTNG (both 2017).

Subsequently, several simulation projects have are themselves spin-offs of IllustrisTNG, including Thesan (2021), MillenniumTNG (2022) and TNG-Cluster (2023).

## Contents

* 1 Illustris simulation
* 1.1 Overview
* 1.2 Computational aspects
* 1.3 Public data release
* 1.4 German postage stamp
* 2 Illustris Spin-Off Projects
* 3 Gallery
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 External links

## Illustris simulation

### Overview

The original Illustris project was carried out by Mark Vogelsberger[8] and collaborators as the first large-scale galaxy formation application of Volker Springel's novel Arepo code.[9]

The Illustris project included large-scale cosmological simulations of the evolution of the universe, spanning initial conditions of the Big Bang, to the present day, 13.8 billion years later. Modeling, based on the most precise data and calculations currently available, are compared to actual findings of the observable universe in order to better understand the nature of the universe, including galaxy formation, dark matter and dark energy.[5][6][7]

The simulation included many physical processes which are thought to be critical for galaxy formation. These include the formation of stars and the subsequent "feedback" due to supernova explosions, as well as the formation of super-massive black holes, their consumption of nearby gas, and their multiple modes of energetic feedback.[1][4][10]

Images, videos, and other data visualizations for public distribution are available at official media page.

### Computational aspects

The main Illustris simulation was run on the Curie supercomputer at CEA (France) and the SuperMUC supercomputer at the Leibniz Computing Centre (Germany).[1][11] A total of 19 million CPU hours was required, using 8,192 CPU cores.[1] The peak memory usage was approximately 25 TB of RAM.[1] A total of 136 snapshots were saved over the course of the simulation, totaling over 230 TB cumulative data volume.[2]

A computer program called "Arepo" was used to run the Illustris simulations. It was written by Volker Springel, the author of GADGET. The name is derived from the Sator Square. Arepo solves the coupled equations of gravity and hydrodynamics using a discretization of space based on a moving Voronoi tessellation. It is optimized for running on large, distributed memory supercomputers using an MPI approach.

### Public data release

In April, 2015 (eleven months after the first papers were published) the project team publicly released all data products from all simulations.[12] All original data files can be directly downloaded through the data release webpage. This includes group catalogs of individual halos and subhalos, merger trees tracking these objects through time, full snapshot particle data at 135 distinct time points, and various supplementary data catalogs. In addition to direct data download, a web-based API allows for many common search and data extraction tasks to be completed without needing access to the full data sets.

### German postage stamp

In December 2018, the Illustris simulation was recognized by Deutsche Post through a special series stamp.

## Illustris Spin-Off Projects

The Illustris simulation framework has been used by a wide range of spin-off projects that focus on specific scientific questions. Most notably, this is IllustrisTNG ("the next generation"). IllustrisTNG: The IllustrisTNG project, "the next generation" follow up to the original Illustris simulation, was first presented in July, 2017. A team of scientists from Germany and the U.S. led by Prof. Volker Springel.[13] First, a new physical model was developed, which among other features included Magnetohydrodynamics planned three simulations, which used different volumes at different resolutions. The intermediate simulation (TNG100) was equivalent to the original Illustris simulation. Unlike Illustris, it was run on the Hazel Hen machine at the High Performance Computing Center, Stuttgart in Germany. Up to 25,000 computer cores were employed. In December 2018 the simulation data from IllustrisTNG was released publicly. The data service includes a JupyterLab interface.

In addition, the Auriga project consists of high-resolution zoom simulations of Milky Way-like dark matter halos to understand the formation of our Milky Way galaxy.

Based off of IllustrisTNG, several additional spin-off simulation suites have been run, specializing in particular specific domains. These include Thesan, a radiative-transfer version of IllustrisTNG to explore the epoch of reionization, MillenniumTNG that employs the TNG model in a larger cosmological volume, with a particular emphasis on cosmology, and TNG-Cluster, a suite of high-resolution zoom-in simulations of galaxy clusters. In 2025 TNG-Cluster has also been made publicly available.

## Gallery

* Stamp of German Postal Service recognizing the Illustris Simulation (2018)

* Galaxies in the Illustris Simulation

* IllustrisTNG ("the next generation")

## See also

* Computational fluid dynamics
* Large-scale structure of the universe
* List of cosmological computation software
* Millennium Run
* N-body simulation
* UniverseMachine

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Staff (14 June 2014). "The Illustris Simulation - Towards a predictive theory of galaxy formation.". http://www.illustris-project.org/.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Vogelsberger, Mark; Genel, Shy; Springel, Volker; Torrey, Paul; Sijacki, Debora; Xu, Dandan; Snyder, Greg; Nelson, Dylan et al. (14 May 2014). "Introducing the Illustris Project: Simulating the coevolution of dark and visible matter in the Universe". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 444 (2): 1518–1547. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu1536. Bibcode: 2014MNRAS.444.1518V. https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/444/2/1518/1749887.
3. ↑ Genel, Shy; Vogelsberger, Mark; Springel, Volker; Sijacki, Debora; Nelson, Dylan; Snyder, Greg; Rodriguez-Gomez, Vicente; Torrey, Paul et al. (15 May 2014). "The Illustris Simulation: the evolution of galaxy populations across cosmic time". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 445 (1): 175–200. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu1654. Bibcode: 2014MNRAS.445..175G. https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/445/1/175/985625.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Vogelsberger, M.; Genel, S.; Springel, V.; Torrey, P.; Sijacki, D.; Xu, D.; Snyder, G.; Bird, S. et al. (8 May 2014). "Properties of galaxies reproduced by a hydrodynamic simulation". Nature 509 (7499): 177–182. doi:10.1038/nature13316. PMID 24805343. Bibcode: 2014Natur.509..177V.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Aguilar, David A.; Pulliam, Christine (7 May 2014). "Astronomers Create First Realistic Virtual Universe - Release No.: 2014-10". Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2014-10.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Overbye, Dennis (16 July 2014). "Stalking the Shadow Universe". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/16/science/space/stalking-the-shadow-universe.html.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Nemiroff, R.; Bonnell, J., eds (12 May 2014). "Illustris Simulation of the Universe". Astronomy Picture of the Day. NASA. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140512.html.
8. ↑ "MIT Department of Physics". http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/vogelsberger_mark.html.
9. ↑ Vogelsberger, Mark; Sijacki, Debora; Kereš, Dušan; Springel, Volker; Hernquist, Lars (2012-09-05). "Moving mesh cosmology: numerical techniques and global statistics" (in en). Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 425 (4): 3024–3057. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2012.21590.x. ISSN 0035-8711. Bibcode: 2012MNRAS.425.3024V.
10. ↑ Vogelsberger, Mark; Genel, Shy; Sijacki, Debora; Torrey, Paul; Springel, Volker; Hernquist, Lars (2013-10-23). "A model for cosmological simulations of galaxy formation physics" (in en). Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 436 (4): 3031–3067. doi:10.1093/mnras/stt1789. ISSN 1365-2966. Bibcode: 2013MNRAS.436.3031V.
11. ↑ Mann, Adam (7 May 2014). "Supercomputers Simulate the Universe in Unprecedented Detail". Wired. https://www.wired.com/2014/05/supercomputers-simulate-the-universe-in-unprecedented-detail/. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
12. ↑ Nelson, D.; Pillepich, A.; Genel, S.; Vogelsberger, M.; Springel, V.; Torrey, P.; Rodriguez-Gomez, V.; Sijacki, D. et al. (14 May 2014). "The Illustris Simulation: Public Data Release". Astronomy and Computing 13: 12–37. doi:10.1016/j.ascom.2015.09.003. Bibcode: 2015A&C....13...12N.
13. ↑ "Mitarbeiter | Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik". https://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/person/55019/164238.

## External links

* No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata.
* Press release \- Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (7 May 2014).
* Video (06:44) - "Illustris" Simulation on YouTube \- Illustris-Project (6 May 2014).
* Video (86:49) - "Search for Life in the Universe" on YouTube \- NASA (14 July 2014)
* "Galaxy simulations are at last matching reality—and producing surprising insights into cosmic evolution". https://www.science.org/content/article/galaxy-simulations-are-last-matching-reality-and-producing-surprising-insights-cosmic. \- article containing a comparison table of different simulation projects

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Dark matter

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Hypothetical particles|

* Axino
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Theories and objects|

* Cuspy halo problem
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Search experiments|

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|

Indirect detection|

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Other projects|

* MultiDark
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Potential dark galaxies|

* HE0450-2958
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* Smith's Cloud
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Related|

* Antimatter
* Dark energy
* Exotic matter
* Galaxy formation and evolution
* Illustris project
* Imaginary mass
* Negative mass
* UniverseMachine

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Computer simulation software

Biology|

* Protein structure prediction
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