When you know the model of the slime fungus’ spread, it helps you visualize the large structures of space

From slime fungus the structure of the universe rarely comes to mind. Or it can come, if you look and compare bravely.

This is what the researcher did Farnahul Hasan with his group. Hasan is an astronomer at New Mexico State University in the United States.

Hasan makes models of what the big structures of the universe look like and how the universe expands.

Humanity has known since the 1920s that the universe is expanding. Perhaps the most credit for that Edwin Hubblellewhich got its name from the Hubble Space Telescope.

In the hundred in the year since Hubble, much has been learned about the expansion of the universe. There is still a lot of refinement in many places.

Now slime mushrooms have also been brought to help.

We all, especially children, have an image of slime mushrooms. They spread in a slimy way. But even their spread has its own laws.

Astronomer Hasan pohtii Polyphy program using the density of the universe.

In his work, he has been inspired by the way certain natural slime fungi spread, he says Hasan on his website.

Hasan built the Cosmic Web with the Physarum program, which models the environment—or looks for the best options—like slime molds spread.

Slime fungi sometimes spread in a way where threads are created in the fungus and there is an empty space in between.

And look: in the same way, the universe has also expanded over billions of years.

Galaxies supersets form the largest ribbon-like structures in the universe. They are called walls. There are empty spaces in space. They are called cosmic bubbles.

There are similarities in the structures.

The researchers expanded the slime fungus a program describing the spread into three dimensions. In addition, they used certain specific rules of expansion taken from astronomy.

Hasan’s group worked with graphics experts when developing the slime sponge algorithm for their needs. He modified the algorithm to help visualize the vast cosmic foam, or woof.

In summer Hasan testified that the model of the expansion of the universe really became more accurate when it was described using a program that modeled the spread of a slime fungus.

He tells about it in a study published by a scientific journal at the end of July The Astrophysical Journal.

The title of the work is freely translated into Finnish The cosmic web of slime filaments and how they affect galaxy evolution.

The Limasia the algorithm describes how the fungus searches for food and at the same time renews its shape.

Placed in the universe, the modified program sees the cosmic web and how gravity changes it.

According to Hasan, the results produced more detailed separate structures than the old method.

“I didn’t know how well it would work. I had a hunch that the slime fungus could provide information about how density builds up in the universe. That’s why I decided to try.”

In the past eras, the growth of galaxies was stimulated by the fact that large structures were nearby. That’s how it was billions of years ago.

Measured in cosmological time, we have recently seen that the growth of galaxies restrict proximity to larger structures.

Realizing this, according to Hasan, was not possible without the slime fungus algorithm, which he and his group modified.

Researchers can now, for example, accurately map the amount and density of gases in space. One project nimi on The Millenium Simulation Project.

Astronomers may learn to specify how the fabric of the universe has changed over time.

About slime fungi in the study of large structures in space told website Science Alert.

Other space explorers are also familiar with slime fungus. The US space agency Nasa has investigated and searched with the help of slime fungi the dark energy of space.