Schaye et al. (2026)
“I like to tease my fellow observers when I ask: ‘What catalog of galaxies do you think these images came from?’
It’s a digital simulation do universe so realistic which, according to the researchers themselves, is practically indistinguishable of the cosmos we observe.
The achievement results from the project Hummingbird, described in a recent; and represents a significant advance in the way science tests its theories about the origin and evolution of the universe.
The simulation recreates, in high detail, the formation and evolution of galaxies over billions of years. Using only known laws of physics, scientists were able to generate virtual “galaxies” with properties very similar to real ones — including number, size, color and luminosity.
I like to tease my fellow observers when I ask: ‘Which catalog of galaxies do you think these images came from?’”.
The main objective was not just to impress, but to test the so-called standard cosmological model, which explains how the universe has evolved since the Big Bang.
In recent years, some observations — especially from the James Webb Space Telescope — have raised doubts about this model.
However, the COLIBRE results suggest that, When physical processes are simulated with greater accuracy, the model continues to be consistent with what we observe in the real universe.
One of the great innovations of this simulation is the detailed inclusion of cold gas and cosmic dust inside galaxies — essential elements for star formation.
In previous models, these components were simplified or ignored due to computational complexity, reinforces .
This time, thanks to technological advances and the use of supercomputers, it was possible to overcome this limitation.
The project required almost a decade development time and enormous computational power: the most complex simulation consumed around 72 million hours of processing.
Still, the researchers emphasize that complete data analysis should take several years.
Despite the success, there are still mysteries to be solved. The model cannot fully explain certain objects observed by James Webb, known as “Little Red Dots”, whose nature remains uncertain.
