Andrew Yee
July 20th 05, 01:48 AM
News & Events Service
University of Durham
Durham, U.K.
Contact:
Professor Carlos Frenk FRS
Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University
Tel: Direct line: 0191 334 3641 Secretary: 0191 334 3635
Tue, 19 July 2005
Galaxies give up their secrets
Astronomers at Durham University are trail-blazing across the galaxies,
using enormous computer power to understand how the universe developed and
explain more about what it contains.
And one of their techniques is to "cook" galaxies from the ingredients of
the universe and the laws of physics in the form of a computer simulation.
They then compare the results with the known universe to test theories
about how the universe grew.
The dramatic images figure in the latest news release from Research-tv:
see
http://www.research-tv.com/stories/technology/cosmic_cookery/
The Durham work, seen both in flat-screen and in 3-D, are among the latest
results that put the Institute of Computational Cosmology, of Durham's
Physics Department, at the heart of internationally significant space
research.
Professor Carlos Frenk, Director of the Institute of Computational
Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University, said: "This is a task
that had challenged cosmologists for about a decade and we were the first
to be able to successfully reproduce the Milky Way Galaxy. It turns out
that what our colleagues had been missing were some very intricate detail
that we call feedback processes whereby the galaxy forming interacts with
galaxies cooling down to make the stars in a fairly complicated way. This
is the first time however that anybody has been able to make a galaxy that
for all intents and purposes could just be the Milky Way."
The ICC's latest output includes:
* the largest simulation ever of the growth of the cosmos
* discovery of 'superwinds' spreading the dust from a vast galactic
explosion 11.5 billion light years away
* identifying a new source of very high energy gamma rays
As members of the Virgo consortium, an international group of
astrophysicists from the UK, Germany, Canada and the USA, the ICC has have
run the largest and most realistic simulation ever of the growth of cosmic
structure and the formation of galaxies and quasars. It employed more than
10 billion particles of matter to trace the evolution of the matter
distribution in a section of the Universe.
In another set of observations, a Durham-led team provided the most direct
evidence yet of a galaxy being almost torn apart by explosions that
produce a stream of high-speed material known as "Superwinds". The
observations were made using the 4.2 metre William Herschel Telescope on
La Palma in which the UK is a major stakeholder. Superwinds are vital to
the theory of galaxy formation. It is thought that with Superwinds
galaxies blast a significant part of their gas into intergalactic space at
speeds of up to several hundred miles per second. They carry heavy
elements -- star dust -- far from their production sites providing raw
material for planets and life across the Universe.
And in another research stream, results have produced a new understanding
of the universe as viewed in gamma rays, producing the first-ever gamma
ray images of astronomical objects and the first scan of a large region
around the centre of the galaxy. The object that is producing the high
energy radiation is thought to be a 'microquasar'. These objects consist
of two stars in orbit around each other. One star is an ordinary star, but
the other has used up all its nuclear fuel, leaving behind a compact
corpse. Depending on the mass of the star that produced it, this compact
object is either a neutron star or a black hole, but either way its strong
gravitational pull draws in matter from its companion star. This matter
spirals down towards the neutron star or the black hole, in a similar way
to water spiralling down a plughole.
Further information:
http://icc.dur.ac.uk/
University of Durham
Durham, U.K.
Contact:
Professor Carlos Frenk FRS
Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University
Tel: Direct line: 0191 334 3641 Secretary: 0191 334 3635
Tue, 19 July 2005
Galaxies give up their secrets
Astronomers at Durham University are trail-blazing across the galaxies,
using enormous computer power to understand how the universe developed and
explain more about what it contains.
And one of their techniques is to "cook" galaxies from the ingredients of
the universe and the laws of physics in the form of a computer simulation.
They then compare the results with the known universe to test theories
about how the universe grew.
The dramatic images figure in the latest news release from Research-tv:
see
http://www.research-tv.com/stories/technology/cosmic_cookery/
The Durham work, seen both in flat-screen and in 3-D, are among the latest
results that put the Institute of Computational Cosmology, of Durham's
Physics Department, at the heart of internationally significant space
research.
Professor Carlos Frenk, Director of the Institute of Computational
Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University, said: "This is a task
that had challenged cosmologists for about a decade and we were the first
to be able to successfully reproduce the Milky Way Galaxy. It turns out
that what our colleagues had been missing were some very intricate detail
that we call feedback processes whereby the galaxy forming interacts with
galaxies cooling down to make the stars in a fairly complicated way. This
is the first time however that anybody has been able to make a galaxy that
for all intents and purposes could just be the Milky Way."
The ICC's latest output includes:
* the largest simulation ever of the growth of the cosmos
* discovery of 'superwinds' spreading the dust from a vast galactic
explosion 11.5 billion light years away
* identifying a new source of very high energy gamma rays
As members of the Virgo consortium, an international group of
astrophysicists from the UK, Germany, Canada and the USA, the ICC has have
run the largest and most realistic simulation ever of the growth of cosmic
structure and the formation of galaxies and quasars. It employed more than
10 billion particles of matter to trace the evolution of the matter
distribution in a section of the Universe.
In another set of observations, a Durham-led team provided the most direct
evidence yet of a galaxy being almost torn apart by explosions that
produce a stream of high-speed material known as "Superwinds". The
observations were made using the 4.2 metre William Herschel Telescope on
La Palma in which the UK is a major stakeholder. Superwinds are vital to
the theory of galaxy formation. It is thought that with Superwinds
galaxies blast a significant part of their gas into intergalactic space at
speeds of up to several hundred miles per second. They carry heavy
elements -- star dust -- far from their production sites providing raw
material for planets and life across the Universe.
And in another research stream, results have produced a new understanding
of the universe as viewed in gamma rays, producing the first-ever gamma
ray images of astronomical objects and the first scan of a large region
around the centre of the galaxy. The object that is producing the high
energy radiation is thought to be a 'microquasar'. These objects consist
of two stars in orbit around each other. One star is an ordinary star, but
the other has used up all its nuclear fuel, leaving behind a compact
corpse. Depending on the mass of the star that produced it, this compact
object is either a neutron star or a black hole, but either way its strong
gravitational pull draws in matter from its companion star. This matter
spirals down towards the neutron star or the black hole, in a similar way
to water spiralling down a plughole.
Further information:
http://icc.dur.ac.uk/