World’s Most Powerful Computer Hunts for Universe’s Dark Secrets

Scientists have unleashed the world’s fastest supercomputer in an ambitious quest to solve some of the universe’s deepest mysteries. The Aurora supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory, capable of performing a quintillion calculations per second, is now probing the shadowy realm of dark matter and dark energy that makes up 95% of our cosmos.

These invisible forces have baffled researchers for decades. While regular matter – the stuff that makes up stars, planets and everything we can see – accounts for just 5% of the universe, dark matter comprises 27% and dark energy a whopping 68%. Understanding these hidden components could revolutionize our grasp of how the universe works.

“The nature of dark matter and dark energy is not understood,” says Salman Habib, Argonne Distinguished Fellow and director of the lab’s Computational Science division. “We know the two exist, but we don’t understand what they are, nor the fundamental principles governing their existence.”

The Dark Sky Mining project combines actual astronomical observations with massive computer simulations to create detailed maps of the cosmos. Using Aurora’s unprecedented computing power alongside artificial intelligence, researchers can simulate countless scenarios of how dark matter and dark energy might behave, comparing these virtual universes to real observations.

This computational approach marks a new chapter in humanity’s long relationship with the cosmos. “Fundamentally, what we’re doing right now is simply an extension of that long history of humanity’s connection to the stars, the galaxies and everything else,” explains Habib. “The ability to look deep into the universe is pretty astounding because it also tells us a lot about our own place in the big scheme of things.”

The quest to understand dark matter dates back to the 1930s, when Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky noticed something odd about galaxy clusters – they stayed bound together despite seemingly lacking enough visible mass to generate the required gravitational force. This led to the idea of invisible “dark matter” providing the extra gravitational glue.

Dark energy emerged as an even more perplexing puzzle when astronomers discovered the universe isn’t just expanding, but accelerating in its expansion. This mysterious force appears to act as a form of anti-gravity, pushing galaxies apart with increasing strength over vast distances.

Aurora’s exascale computing capabilities, combined with advanced AI techniques, allow researchers to explore these phenomena more efficiently than ever before. The supercomputer can rapidly simulate thousands of different scenarios, tweaking the properties of dark matter and dark energy until the results match actual observations of the cosmos.

One powerful new approach uses machine learning to dramatically reduce the number of simulations needed. “So, the point is, we can make the process way more efficient,” notes Habib. This efficiency is crucial when modeling universe-spanning phenomena like cosmic expansion.

The project aims not only to illuminate the nature of dark matter and dark energy but also to prepare for a new generation of powerful telescopes that will peer deeper into the cosmos than ever before. The research could help resolve other fundamental physics puzzles, including the mysterious properties of neutrinos – ghostly particles that barely interact with regular matter.

Beyond the specific scientific goals, this marriage of cutting-edge computing and cosmology points toward exciting technological innovations. As we push the boundaries of our computational capabilities in the quest to understand the universe’s darkest secrets, we’re likely to discover unexpected applications that benefit society in ways we can’t yet imagine.