It's basically an experiment that has been running for billions of years. As you go forward in time (closer to earth) you also find more initial setup conditions - almost like scrubbing back and forth in a photographic timeline.

It's an amazing database of real-world physics that we can test our predictions against. These astronomical theories have a habit of trickling down. Consider the impact of having a massive fusion generator in our solar system: fusion energy is something that could have a rather substantial impact on every human being.