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Isolated Disc Galaxy

Video

Isolated Disc Galaxy

Simulation of an isolated disc galaxy, looking at the disc of the galaxy face on (top panels) and edge on (bottom panels). The left-hand panels show images of the stellar light, and is what we would see if we viewed this galaxy with a telescope such as Hubble. The right-hand panels show the gas in

Alex Richings / Northwestern

A Stellar Collision, Ripples In Space-Time, And The Origins Of Gold

Interview

A Stellar Collision, Ripples In Space-Time, And The Origins Of Gold

About 130 million years ago, two neutron stars collided, unleashing an explosion that rippled space-time and splattered the cosmos with a cocktail of heavy metals. Astronomers announced that they spotted the signals from that “kilonova” explosion, both in gravitational waves like the ones LIGO previously detected from merging black holes, and in signals across the

Science Friday

A 20 Solar Mass Star

Video

A 20 Solar Mass Star

This movie shows the evolution of a star 20 times more massive than our sun. The blue color of the star’s surface visible in the first frame is the result of this higher mass.

Credit: Stellar simulation by Vicky Kalogera, Bart Willems and Francesca Valsecchi. Visualization by Matthew McCrory. Funding: NSF and LIGO

Stellar encounters: Binary+single (exchange and collision)

Video

Stellar encounters: Binary+single (exchange and collision)

Binary+single encounter that leads to an exchange, followed by a second binary+single encounter that leads to a collision Within star clusters, close encounters between single and multiple stars can be frequent and may lead to the production of exotic stars like X-ray sources and blue stragglers. By using the small-N-body code FEWBODY and another visualization

Movies by Aaron Geller using IDL and MPEG Streamclip; dynamical calculation performed using FEWBODY / Funding: NSF

Stellar encounters: Triple+binary (collision)

Video

Stellar encounters: Triple+binary (collision)

Triple+binary encounter that leads to a collision Within star clusters, close encounters between single and multiple stars can be frequent and may lead to the production of exotic stars like X-ray sources and blue stragglers. By using the small-N-body code FEWBODY and another visualization software, a few visualizations of interesting stellar encounters were created. In

Movies by Aaron Geller using IDL and MPEG Streamclip; dynamical calculation performed using FEWBODY / Funding: NSF

Stellar encounters: Binary+single (collision)

Video

Stellar encounters: Binary+single (collision)

Binary + single encounter that leads to a collision Within star clusters, close encounters between single and multiple stars can be frequent and may lead to the production of exotic stars like X-ray sources and blue stragglers. By using the small-N-body code FEWBODY and another visualization software, a few visualizations of interesting stellar encounters were

Movies by Aaron Geller using IDL and MPEG Streamclip; dynamical calculation performed using FEWBODY / Funding: NSF

Stellar Encounters: Binary+single (exchange)

Video

Stellar Encounters: Binary+single (exchange)

Binary+single encounter that leads to an exchange Within star clusters, close encounters between single and multiple stars can be frequent and may lead to the production of exotic stars like X-ray sources and blue stragglers. By using the small-N-body code FEWBODY and another visualization software, a few visualizations of interesting stellar encounters were created. In

Movies by Aaron Geller using IDL and MPEG Streamclip; dynamical calculation performed using FEWBODY / Funding: NSF

The Late Evolution of Our Solar System

Video

The Late Evolution of Our Solar System

This movie, Life of the Pleiades, was generated from an interactive visualization that Aaron Geller developed with Mark SubbaRao using Uniview. The interactive version can be shown on a planetarium dome, or rendered into a movie (as shown here). A 3D version of this movie exists in the Space Visualization Lab at the Adler Planetarium.

Created by A. M. Geller and M. SubbaRao, using Uniview; music, narration and audio by A. M. Geller; dynamical calculation with stellar evolution performed using the NBODY6 code.

A 1 Solar Mass Star

Video

A 1 Solar Mass Star

This movie shows the evolution of a star as massive as our sun. Each star spends most of its life in a phase known as the main sequence, during which it burns hydrogen into helium at its center and it slowly expands (as the reference circles show) to accommodate the energy produced via this nuclear

Stellar simulation by Vicky Kalogera, Bart Willems and Francesca Valsecchi. Visualization by Matthew McCrory. / Funding: NSF and LIGO

Dynamical Evolution of Star Clusters

Video

Dynamical Evolution of Star Clusters

This movie, Life of the Pleiades, was generated from an interactive visualization that Aaron Geller developed with Mark SubbaRao using Uniview. The interactive version can be shown on a planetarium dome, or rendered into a movie (as shown here). A 3D version of this movie exists in the Space Visualization Lab at the Adler Planetarium.

Created by A. M. Geller and M. SubbaRao, using Uniview; music, narration and audio by A. M. Geller; dynamical calculation with stellar evolution performed using the NBODY6 code.

A 10 Solar Mass Star

Video

A 10 Solar Mass Star

This movie shows the evolution of a star 10 times more massive than our sun. The blue color of the star’s surface visible in the first frame is the result of this higher mass. Each star spends most of its life in a phase known as the main sequence, during which it burns hydrogen into

Credit: Stellar simulation by Vicky Kalogera, Bart Willems and Francesca Valsecchi. Visualization by Matthew McCrory. Funding: NSF and LIGO

Neutron Star & White Dwarf Binary

Video

Neutron Star & White Dwarf Binary

This movie shows one of the possible evolutionary scenarios of a binary system. Binary systems are star systems comprising two stars orbiting around their common center of mass in a Keplerian orbit, which means that the two components are bound together by their mutual gravitational attraction. In this movie, the binary system consists of a

Stellar simulation by Vicky Kalogera, Bart Willems and Francesca Valsecchi. Visualization by Matthew McCrory. / Funding: NSF and LIGO

Evolution of the Color Magnitude Diagram of a Star Cluster

Video

Evolution of the Color Magnitude Diagram of a Star Cluster

This is a movie of the evolving color-magnitude diagram from the N-body model of the old open cluster NGC 188. Binaries are plotted with blue points, and show the combined light of the unresolved system. Single stars are plotted in black points. The dynamical and stellar evolution calculations were performed using NBODY6, with some modifications

Movie by Aaron Geller using IDL and MPEG Streamclip; dynamical and stellar evolution calculations performed with NBODY6 / Funding: NSF

Radiative-hydrodynamic Simulation of a Dusty Cloud Irradiated by a Quasar

Image

Radiative-hydrodynamic Simulation of a Dusty Cloud Irradiated by a Quasar

The figure shows a radiative-hydrodynamic simulation of a dusty cloud irradiated by a quasar (located at r = 0). Radiation pressure is set to be the dominant pressure source. Left panel shows the initial conditions, while the right panel shows the cloud 10^4 years after exposure to the quasar radiation. A quasi-static density gradient develops at

Jonathan Stern in collaboration with J. Onorbe.

Cataclysmic Variable stars

Image

Cataclysmic Variable stars

Cataclysmic Variable stars (CVs) are binary star systems where an ultra-dense star (a white dwarf) pulls material off of its companion star, steadily consuming it over time. Depending on how strong the magnetic field strength of the white dwarf is, this material might be channelled down onto the surface of the white dwarf via magnetic

Deanne Coppejans / Northwestern

Mass Loss Velocity

Image

Mass Loss Velocity

Massive stars end their lives in powerful explosions (supernovae) that span a wide range of energies and properties. The most powerful of these are the appropriately named Superluminous Supernovae (SLSNe). As SLSNe are so bright and energetic, we can see them out to great distances in the universe, and they could prove to be very

Deanne Coppejans / Northwestern