Dark matter, supermassive black holes, galaxies, stars, magnetic fields—The Next Generation’s project, called Illustris or IllustrisTNG, has managed to fit the entire universe into a cube.

This impressive feat is the most advanced simulation of the universe and its evolution ever; the cube is a collection of state-of-the-art cosmological galaxy formation simulations. IllustrisTNG is a computational collaboration involving theoretical physicists, astrophysicists, scientists from the Max Planck Institutes for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Harvard, MIT, and more.

And the project presents a solution to a longstanding problem: How can we observe a larger portion of the universe without sacrificing detail?

Observing galaxies through telescopes only allows us to see certain properties of those galaxies. Existing simulations have historically made us choose between two options: large swathes of the universe simulated in low detail, or highly detailed simulations of only small pockets of the universe.

But IllustrisTNG allows for unparalleled detail on huge scales and offers three versions to choose from including TNG50, TNG100, and TNG300.

In this Elements, find out more about the different IllustrisTNG options, and what this new simulation could mean for the future of universe observation.