Tag: DIRAC Institute
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How number crunchers could help crack the cosmological mystery of dark energy
Berkeley astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter discusses the implications of the universe’s accelerating expansion at the University of Washington. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) Big data just might give astronomers a better grip on the answer to one of the biggest questions in physics: Exactly what’s behind the mysterious acceleration in the expansion rate of the universe,…
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Super-wide-angle Zwicky Transient Facility celebrates ‘first light’ with help from UW
The Zwicky Transient Facility captured this “first light” image on Nov. 1. The Orion Nebula is at lower right. Computers searching these images for quick-changing events are trained to recognize and ignore non-astronomical artifacts such as the vertical lines seen here. (Caltech Optical Observatories) A sky survey that draws upon the data-crunching skills of researchers…
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UW’s DIRAC Institute gears up for big data from wide-angle telescope surveys
Artwork shows the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope scanning the night sky in Chile. (LSST Illustration) A new data analysis center for what’s expected to be torrents of astronomical imagery is taking shape at the University of Washington. Thanks to contributions from software billionaire Charles Simonyi and other donors, researchers at the Astronomy Department’s DIRAC Institute are…