Category Archives: cosmology

Citizen Science: Contributions to Astronomy Research  

This is the title of an interesting paper by Carol Christian et al., in which they discuss the role of citizen science in modern astronomical research.  The authors adopt the definition of  citizen science as ” active involvement of a … Continue reading

Posted in archives, astroinformatics, Astronomy, astronomy surveys, Cloud computing, cosmology, cyberinfrastructure, data archives, Data Management, exoplanets, galaxies, galaxy formation, High performance computing, information sharing, Kepler, Milky Way, time series data, Transiting exoplanets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Most realistic simulation yet of the formation of the Milky Way

This wonderful movie shows the most realistic simulation yet made of the formation of the Milky Way. The simulation is named after Eris, the Greek goddess of strife and discord, chosen to reflect decades’ worth of vigorous debate on this … Continue reading

Posted in Astronomy, cosmology, cyberinfrastructure, galaxies, galaxy formation, High performance computing, Milky Way, programming | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A New Model For Data Centers In The Era Of “Big Data”?

The current model of a data center managing data sets generated by a mission in a local computer room and serving data to astronomers, who download and work with them on their desktops, will break down in the coming years … Continue reading

Posted in Astronomy, Cloud computing, cosmology, cyberinfrastructure, data archives, Data Management, High performance computing, information sharing, Parallelization, programming, software engineering, software maintenance, software sustainability | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The First Stars, As Seen By Supercomputers

This is the title of an article by Tom Abel of the Kavli Institute, Stanford and appearing in the April 2011 issue of Physics Today. The article may be downloaded for personal use free of charge. The on-line article contains … Continue reading

Posted in Astronomy, cosmology, cyberinfrastructure, High performance computing, Parallelization, programming, software engineering | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment