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Browse by Category: Astronomy/Cosmology
Duo image
The NCSA visualization team of David Bock and Mark Van Moer provides technical expertise and assistance to computational scientists and researchers desiring to represent and analyze data generated by computational models to facilitate the understanding of the simulated phenomena.
Release date: 2012-11-14
World's most powerful digital camera records first images in hunt for dark energy
The Dark Energy Camera, the most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created, has for the first time captured and recorded ancient starlight that may hold the answer to one of the biggest mysteries in physics—why the expansion of the universe is speeding up. Scientists in the international Dark Energy Survey (DES) collaboration will use this camera to undertake the largest galaxy survey ever attempted, and the massive amounts of data will be processed and stored at NCSA.
Release date: 2012-09-17
A moving question
NCSA and XSEDE aid an Indiana University researcher studying the migration of massive planets in protoplanetary disks. Understanding how planets shift is one of the first steps in the quest to discover other life in the universe.
Release date: 2012-05-22
NCSA's visualization team goes where no filmmaker has gone before
Release date: 2012-03-07
Catch the wave
Modeling and simulation using NCSA resources help scientists advance work with supernovas.
Release date: 2012-01-10
NCSA helps filmmakers show dangers of 'Space Junk'
NCSA's Advanced Visualization Lab created data-driven scientific visualizations for the new film Space Junk 3D," which focuses on the growing collection of debris orbiting the earth.
Release date: 2012-01-06
NCSA awarded $7.7 million for Dark Energy Survey data management
Release date: 2011-10-05
'Things you couldn't do otherwise'
The University of Illinois' Jon Thaler talks to J. William Bell about the relationships between physics and astronomy, between NCSA and other parts of the University, and the importance of both.
Release date: 2011-09-09
User reflections: John Hawley
University of Virginia astronomy professor John Hawley shares his thoughts on advances in high-performance computing.
Release date: 2011-09-09
NCSA helps Chicago's Adler Planetarium create 'Deep Space Adventure'
NCSA's Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) collaborated with the Adler Planetarium and astronomy researchers to take planetarium visitors on an ultra high-definition "Deep Space Adventure" that combines a science fiction narrative with scientifically accurate renderings of planets, stars, and galaxies.
Release date: 2011-07-05
NCSA's Advanced Visualization Lab contributes to Palm d'Or-winning Terrence Malick film
NCSA's Advanced Visualization Laboratory has enlivened documentary television and IMAX movies for years. Now, they're contributing to a feature starring Brad Pitt that won big at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Release date: 2011-06-01
Medium action
University of Colorado researchers study the chemistry of the interstellar medium with the help of NCSA's Abe.
Release date: 2011-04-28
NCSA supercomputers help astrophysicists gain insight into galaxy formation
Release date: 2010-11-23
Behind the scenes of 'Hubble 3D'
Just like with a fireworks extravaganza, behind the scenes of Hubble 3D were months of intense work designing and preparing just the right mix of elements, and choreographing the spectacular display.
Release date: 2010-11-09
A blast in the past
A University of Kansas research team is using NCSA's Abe to explore the energy of cosmic rays and a possible link to massive prehistoric extinction events.
Release date: 2010-11-09
NCSA provides sneak peek of what Webb will see
As scientists and engineers work to make NASA's James Webb Space Telescope a reality, they find themselves wondering what new sights the largest space-based observatory ever constructed will reveal. Drawing on the latest simulation data, NCSA's Advanced Visualization Laboratory created detailed visualizations of the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets—phenomena that scientists hope to capture with Webb.
Release date: 2010-11-03
NCSA visualizations help tell 'Life: A Cosmic Story'
Release date: 2010-10-11
Hubble 3D earns 3 awards at Giant Screen Cinema Association
Hubble 3D, a 43-minute IMAX® 3D documentary featuring two sequences created by NCSA's Advanced Visualization Laboratory, won three achievement awards from the Giant Screen Cinema Association. The film, an IMAX and Warner Bros. Pictures production, was honored as Best Film Produced Exclusively For Giant Screen Theaters and Best Film for Lifelong Learning and for Best Cinematography.
Release date: 2010-10-01
Sky yields big data
Cosmology and astronomy are increasingly data-intensive sciences. NCSA is assisting researchers as they prepare to gather and process petabytes of data.
Release date: 2010-07-02
NCSA visualizations featured in Hubble 3D
Release date: 2010-03-17
Oscillons: Lumps in the primordial soup
Using NCSA's Abe supercomputer Middlebury College physicist Noah Graham is simulating conditions to create oscillons from the early formation of the universe.
Release date: 2009-11-12
Stephen Hawking narrates NCSA visualizations for Canadian festival
Release date: 2009-10-12
Big science calls for big computers
Astronomer Tiziana Di Matteo, Carnegie Mellon University, describes the importance of computing resources to her novel approach to understanding galaxy formation by tracking the growth of supermassive black holes. The complex theoretical modeling on which she relies will be accelerated by petascale supercomputers like Blue Waters, coming online at NCSA in 2011.
Release date: 2009-04-14
Girls can apply for GEMS astronomy program until March 30
Release date: 2009-03-12
NCSA contributes to planetarium shows
Release date: 2009-03-04
Illinois researcher gives invited talk at SKA conference in South Africa
Release date: 2008-12-22
Finding the unexpected
Cornell's Jim Cordes talks about the challenges of the Square Kilometer Array project and the breakthrouhs it could enable.
Release date: 2008-12-02
NCSA images part of National Geographic program that debuts Dec. 7
The Advanced Visualization Lab at NCSA contributed data-driven high-resolution visualizations of cosmic evolution and black holes for a program debuting on the National Geographic Channel on Dec. 7. Journey into a Monster Black Hole traces the lifecycle of a black hole, from its violent beginnings in the early universe, to its growth to supermassive proportions at the center of a galaxy, and its death in deep time.
Release date: 2008-11-25
Assurance of things not seen
University of Virginia researchers use TeraGrid resources to simulate the accretion disks that ring black holes and the astrophysical jets they create.
Release date: 2008-10-07
NCSA, U of I Astronomy receive $2.5 million grant for dark energy project
Release date: 2008-09-15
Time travel
Want to know what the universe looked like after the Big Bang? The largest adaptive mesh cosmological simulation ever done allowed cosmologists to travel backwards in time and view some early history of the universe.
Release date: 2008-08-11
Dark energy project moving forward
The Dark Energy Survey will study the nature of dark energy and cosmic acceleration.
Release date: 2008-08-05
Girls experience astronomy through GEMS program
At NCSA, stargazing is going on in broad daylight. For the second consecutive year, the Girls Engaged in Math and Science (GEMS) program at NCSA is partnered with the Department of Astronomy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to bring grid-based digital astronomy within reach for about 40 local middle-school-aged girls.
Release date: 2008-07-15
NCSA to lead calibration and processing team for massive radio astronomy project
Release date: 2008-05-28
NCSA, SDSC power simulation to help find missing matter
Release date: 2007-12-06
From stars to storms
Release date: 2007-11-08
A common occurrence
A long-term collaboration between astronomers at Northwestern University and NCSA outlines the evolution of binary stars and acts of "stellar cannibalism."
Release date: 2007-08-23
Arizona researchers use NCSA's Tungsten cluster to develop new astrophysics tool
Release date: 2007-04-23
Parting shot: Galaxy evolution
Release date: 2006-12-06
Good CARMA
Anneila I. Sargent, director of the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy, discusses the opportunities CARMA provides to observe and understand galaxies, molecular clouds forming clusters of stars, newly born stars emerging from their clouds, comets, and the cosmic radiation left-over from the Big Bang.
Release date: 2006-11-09
NCSA visualizations featured in upcoming NOVA special
High-resolution scientific visualizations created at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) will artfully illustrate the latest black hole research in the PBS NOVA special "Monster of the Milky Way," which debuts Oct. 31.
Release date: 2006-10-27
Developing data solutions
NCSA is working with astronomers to move, process, analyze, share, and store the onslaught of data from observatories, particularly the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope that will see first light in 2013.
Release date: 2006-08-08
Binary stars light up Tungsten
A tailored account on Tungsten provides an unparalleled look at binary stars.
Release date: 2006-01-25
The Big Picture
The Palomar-Quest Survey's nightly snapshots of huge regions of the sky might help answer the question of exactly what's going on up there.
Release date: 2005-02-08
Cold Diffusion
The presence of magnetic fields helps determine whether stars will form in the coldest places in the universe.
Release date: 2004-01-27
Writing the Book of the Universe
A simulation devised by researchers at UCSD shows how energy rippling out from quasars ionized the intergalactic medium of the universe.
Release date: 2003-11-18
Archiving the Universe
Using NCSA computing resources, scientists help construct the National Virtual Observatory, a digital framework that will make astronomical data accessible for research on a scale never before achieved.
Release date: 2003-05-13
Shedding Light on Dark Matter
Massive computer simulations are giving scientists clues to the nature of dark matter.
Release date: 2002-04-09
Going with the Flow
Using the power of NCSA's new Itanium Linux cluster, a University of Minnesota research team will be able to simulate turbulent flow in greater detail than ever before possible.
Release date: 2001-11-13
Weathering the Substorm
Realistic views of the earth's magnetosphere during substorms are key
to understanding this complex system.
Release date: 2001-05-22
The Asteroid Diaries
With an Alliance SGI Origin2000 and an astrophysical gas dynamics code from NCSA, researchers are simulating asteroid impacts on Venus in order to deduce the age of its cratered surface
Release date: 2001-04-24
Here Comes the Sun
Simulations on NCSA's SGI Origin2000 array are giving researchers a new understanding of convection and magnetic flux near the solar surface.
Release date: 2000-11-21
Mind Over (Dark) Matter
Simulations on NCSA's SGI Origin2000 supercomputer are giving researchers insight into the nature of dark matter and how galaxies form clusters. They're also disproving a common method of measuring the mass of those galaxy clusters.
Release date: 2000-09-05
First Glimpse of First Stars
The first stars in the universe died long before scientists could get a look at them. Today, billions of years after the last of these first stars burned out, Alliance researchers are tracking them down.
Release date: 1999-11-16
Guides to the Galaxies
Cosmologists need road maps, too. When the Sloan Digital Sky Survey begins surveying millions of distant galaxies, new computer models will help cosmologists interpret what they see. In turn the survey data will help cosmologists determine the accuracy of their models.
Release date: 1999-08-24
Planets Prefer Wacky Orbits
In extrasolar systems, planets don't necessarily orbit in simple Earthlike paths.
Release date: 1999-04-20
Colliding Neutron Stars
Somewhere in the universe's billions of galaxies two neutron stars are locked in an ever-accelerating inspiral. This inspiral, begun millions of years before, will reach nearly the speed of light just before the stars collide, producing a crash so violent that the gravitational waves from this cosmic splash will be seen millions of light years away.
Release date: 1998-02-10
Taking the Pulse of a Red Giant
Simulation captures convection in aging stars
Release date: 1998-01-27
Star Light, Star Bright
Evening in the country, open spaces, wide sky. The sun is sinking. A pale glow lingers overhead as darkness creeps in from the east. A gleam of light catches the corner of your eye. First star. Make a wish. The daily drama of this moment, replayed through human time, hints at a similar moment billions of years ago. Before there was a Milky Way Galaxy, solar system, or planet Earth, out of cosmic darkness came the first star in the universe.
Release date: 1997-11-17
Star Search: Astronomy Digital Image Library
A new, easily searchable, Web-based library of 2D and 3D astronomical images offers the moon, the stars and then some.
Release date: 1997-06-13
Germany Reinvigorates Relativity Research with a New Institute
More than six decades and a political dynasty have passed since eastern Germany nurtured such luminaries of science as Albert Einstein and Max Planck. But today a unified Germany is eager to reinvigorate science in its formerly Communist half. Following a major reorganization of eastern Germany's state and federally funded system of scientific institutes, the government is pouring new funds and support into science. They are also vigorously recruiting scientists from around the world and building alliances with scientific centers in other countries.
Release date: 1997-05-22
NCSA Mirrors Mars Pathfinder Website
On July 4th, 1997, the Mars Pathfinder will land on the surface of Mars and begin to transmit digital images of the Martian landscape back to scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA. Soon thereafter, the first pictures of Mars will be publicly available on the Pathfinder Home Page at JPL, developed by Webmaster David Dubov.
Release date: 1997-03-26
Cosmic Voyage Nominated for Oscar
Cosmic Voyage, one of the first IMAX films to use supercomputing simulations and the first IMAX film ever to use four minutes of research-quality scientific visualization, has been nominated for an Academy Award© in the Documentary (short subject) category.
Release date: 1997-03-04
NCSA Teams with NASA on Next-generation Applications
NCSA Researchers are part of a group chosen this summer as a NASA ESS Grand Challenge Principal Investigator team. As part of NASA's Earth and Space Sciences program, the team will help develop next-generation applications that explain and predict interactions in the universe by examining the merger of two neutron stars.
Release date: 1997-01-31
