most detailed simulation of our universe.

this is your universe, simulated.   watch full screen and enjoy!




"The Illustris simulation is the most ambitious computer simulation of our Universe yet performed. The calculation tracks the expansion of the universe, the gravitational pull of matter onto itself, the motion of cosmic gas, as well as the formation of stars and black holes. These physical components and processes are all modeled starting from initial conditions resembling the very young universe 300,000 years after the Big Bang and until the present day, spanning over 13.8 billion years of cosmic evolution. The simulated volume contains tens of thousands of galaxies captured in high-detail, covering a wide range of masses, rates of star formation, shapes, sizes, and with properties that agree well with the galaxy population observed in the real universe. The simulations were run on supercomputers in France, Germany, and the US. The largest was run on 8,192 compute cores, and took 19 million CPU hours. A single state-of-the-art desktop computer would require more than 2000 years to perform this calculation."

Find out more at:
http://www.illustris-project.org

Publication:
"Properties of galaxies reproduced by a hydrodynamic simulation", Vogelsberger, Genel, Springel, Torrey, Sijacki, Xu, Snyder, Bird, Nelson, Hernquist, Nature 509, 177-182 (08 May 2014) doi:10.1038/nature13316

New Zealand South Island

I recently visited new zealand's south island for a week of work.  i love that place - every turn provides a different beautiful scene.  here are some photos.

finally opened brian schmidt's 2005 maipenrai pinot noir.   it was surprisingly full bodied with a hint of cherry!  delicious :)

observing galaxies with a 4-metre telescope

here's a video i created in about the last 24 hours.   it has been a fun little project with a hack day feel :)

it shows scenes from one night observing galaxies with the 4-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.  

all of the footage was taken with a GoPro camera and edited together with imovie.

enjoy!



SAMI is the Sydney Australian Astronomical Observatory Multi-object Integral Field Spectrograph, a brand new instrument on the 4-meter AAT.  Integral field spectroscopy allows a unique view of how stars and gas zoom around inside distant galaxies because we collect dozens of spectra across the entire face of each galaxy.

The new technology includes the bundles of wires shown in orange and silver which plug into the metal plate. In the silver cords are 61 optical fibres! One bundle points at a single galaxy and captures its stars and gas swirling around in 61 different spots across the face of the galaxy! There are 13 of these galaxy hexabundles, making the survey uniquely efficient.

The new technology has been designed to fit inside the original photographic plate base structure built in the 1970s. It looks solid, doesnt it? I like all the manual dials, and there's even an eyepiece!

The only negative is that after observing with one configuration for 4 hours (in a series of 30 minute exposures), we have to climb into the cage in the middle of the night to manually unplug and replug a different plate. It's an active observing campaign!

This footage was shot on the night of 27 April 2014, the 40th Anniversary of the first starlight ever collected by the AAT.

sunsets and galaxies

i'm observing this week with the 4-metre AAT telescope at siding spring observatory in NSW, australia.  we're using SAMI - the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral Field Unit.  so far the SAMI Survey has observed almost 700 galaxies with this unique technology - the biggest collection of galaxies to date observed with integral field spectroscopy.  exciting!

tonight provided a spectacular stormy sunset, then a little bit of observing before the clouds really thickened.  so i took some photos.

swirling storm of sunset and showers

 i love seeing rain falling in the distance.

sunset through the rain

observing companions for the week

i'm amazed as how much the instrument has improved since my last observing run with SAMI in 2011.

getting reacquainted with SAMI

we have to climb in that little space to plug all the bundles into the metal plate.

hanging out with SAMI at prime focus

the new technology includes the bundles of wires shown in orange and silver which plug into the metal plate.  in the silver cords are 61 optical fibres!  one bundle points at a single galaxy and captures its stars and gas swirling around in 61 different spots!  there are 13 of these galaxy hexabundles, making the survey uniquely efficient.

the new technology has been designed to fit inside one of the original base structures built in the 1970s. it looks solid, doesnt it?  i like all the manual dials, and there's even an eyepiece!

the only negative is that after observing with one configuration for 4 hours (in a series of 30 minute exposures), we have to climb into the cage in the middle of the night to manually unplug and replug a different plate.  it's an active observing campaign!

the necessity of plate-plugging in the middle of the night makes me very excited for the development of new AAO technology: the starbug micro-robots, which zoom around a plate (of glass) to position themselves independently and very quickly! 

australia's snake-catching spider

i was walking around the botanical gardens in sydney this week when i came across several huge golden orb-weaving spiders and their webs.

the the golden orb-weaving spider in the centre of its metre-wide web.

the spider and its.... lunch?

yes, the spiders were large and a bit creepy, but i knew their venom isnt fatally harmful to humans, so i just looked on in awe.

then i saw this video captured by daniel reardon.   a brown tree snake falls out of a tree, into a golden orb spider’s web, and loses the battle.   ACK!



also.... help?

to siding spring observatory!

taking a road trip tomorrow to siding spring observatory.   it's a pleasant ~7 hour drive across a fair chunk of australia!

from sydney to coonabarabran!

i'll be up during the nights for the next week observing for the SAMI survey.  i also plan to update that front page as, weather permitting, we will observe the 700th SAMI galaxy this week!  that's more galaxies with integral field spectroscopy (IFS) than previously observed by all other surveys combined! IFS allows a unique view of how stars and gas zoom around inside distant galaxies because we collect dozens of spectra across the entire face of each galaxy.

hopefully i'll have time to write more throughout the week! 

silent storms

Happy Easter Sunday: the first Sunday after the Full Moon that occurs on or after the vernal equinox. they really take the hot cross buns tradition seriously here in australia. i've eaten SO MANY in recent weeks since they're all over the farmer's markets. i dont think i knew what they actually were until i moved here - small, square fruit bread. yum!

now enjoy this timelapse of some fantastic northern lights sequences over norway.

Silent Storms from Ole C. Salomonsen on Vimeo.

cake philosophy

via calm blue oceans.

lunar eclipse from siding spring observatory

after a disappointing start, with a cloudy eastern horizon and a lovely sunset on the western horizon, the eclipsed moon finally rose above the clouds and sat right underneath the star spica and to the bottom right of mars!

i was not impressed by the clouds on the horizon blocking the rising moon.

unimpressed by clouds

it's fascinating to watch the regrowth of the warrumbungles since the fires swept through SSO 16 months ago.   here is the view as the sunset's colours were intensifying.

regrowth in the warrumbungles

clouds do make for the most beautiful sunsets, even if they are bad for most attempts at astronomical observation.

sunset from the catwalk around the 4 metre AAT telescope

finally the clouds thinned and i captured a quick view of the lunar eclipse. the sun's light scattering through earth's atmosphere is why the sky is blue, why sunsets look red, and why the moon looks red during a total lunar eclipse.

the eclipsed moon, spica above, and mars to the left.