News & Features 2020
Scientists Use NASA Data to Predict Appearance of Dec. 14 Eclipse
Predictive Science Inc. used data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to develop a prediction of the total solar eclipse, which was visible in Chile and Argentina. NAS Division supercomputers supported the computations.
Read more on predictions of how the solar corona would look during the December 14 2020 eclipse
Visualizing the Future of Advanced Air Mobility
The Pleiades and Electra supercomputers at the NAS facility processed hundreds of millions of data points in a simulation of the airflow among four rotors in a concept for a six-passenger quadcopter.
Read more on how supercomputers are helping design drones and other advanced air mobility vehicles
Simulating NASA's Rocket Launch for Artemis Moon Missions
The NAS Division's Launch Ascent and Vehicle Aerodynamics (LAVA) team runs high-fidelity, multiphase launch environment simulations to better understand the ignition overpressure and acoustic pressure waves that occur during launch and how they affect the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, to help ensure when launch day arrives, everything goes smoothly.
Read more on LAVA software simulations of Space Launch System launch conditions
NASA Simulations Validate Orion Safety Models for Artemis Astronauts
As part of the Artemis program, NASA’s Orion spacecraft will carry the first woman and next man to lunar orbit before they land on the Moon in 2024. An integral part of ensuring safe spaceflight is Orion’s Launch Abort System (LAS). To better understand the effects of strong vibrations generated by the abort motor’s high-speed exhaust plumes, a team at Ames produced high-fidelity simulations using NASA’s Electra supercomputer.
NASA Triples the Power of its Aitken Modular Supercomputer
Engineers at the NAS facility expanded the petascale Aitken supercomputer, more than tripling the system’s production capability to help solve NASA’s most challenging problems.
UK Researchers Dial into the Sound of Mars
Researchers from the UK have used NASA data to create new mobile phone ringtones that are quite literally out of this world. Domenico Vicinanza, of Anglia Ruskin University, and Genevieve Williams, of the University of Exeter, carried out the project to celebrate NASA's Pleiades supercomputer and its role in the successful Mars InSight mission.
Listen to music created from Mars data and download mobile phone ringtones
NASA Supercomputers Visualize Quieter Supersonic Flight
NASA's X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology X-plane is designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without producing sonic booms. Researchers at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility, in collaboration with Lockheed Martin, created a database of computational fluid dynamics simulations to verify the aircraft's supersonic performance. The X-59 simulations are performed on the NAS facility's Pleiades supercomputer.
Read more on simulations to verify performance of the X-59 aircraft
3D Model Seeks to Explain Mysterious Hexagon Storm on Saturn
The hexagonal flow pattern near the north pole of Saturn is a striking example of turbulent self-organization that has been puzzling scientists for decades. Researchers from Harvard University used a complex 3D model run on the high-performance computing resources at NAS to better understand the physics behind the phenomenon.
NASA Missions Spy First Possible ‘Survivor’ Planet Hugging White Dwarf Star
An international team of astronomers using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and retired Spitzer Space Telescope has reported what may be the first intact planet found closely orbiting a white dwarf star. The NAS Division processed the TESS data products employed in the study, published in Nature.
A Crescent-Shaped Heliosphere
A paper published in Nature Astronomy details how scientists have developed a new prediction of the shape of the bubble surrounding our solar system using a model developed with data from NASA missions and run on the NAS Facility's Pleiades supercomputer.
Read more about solar research using NAS facility supercomputers
Inside the U.S.-Led COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium
As part of this report from Nextgov.com, two NASA Ames researchers describe how they use NAS resources to conduct genome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis to make correlations between COVID-19 severity and genetic features of individuals. NASA has been involved in the initiative from the very beginning, explains NAS Division Chief Piyush Mehrotra.
Read more on how NASA supercomputers support COVID-19 research
A New Galactic Center Adventure in Virtual Reality
By combining data from telescopes with supercomputer simulations and virtual reality, a new visualization allows you to experience 500 years of cosmic evolution around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The simulations were run on supercomputing resources located at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility.
NASA Supercomputers Power COVID-19 Research
NASA is flexing its supercomputing muscle to help crack some of the most pressing questions surrounding COVID-19, from basic science on how the virus interacts with cells in the human body to genetic risk factors to screening for potential therapeutic drugs. NAS supercomputing power and expertise are being used to help researchers working on COVID-19 studies.
Read more about how the NAS Division is supporting COVID-19 research
NAS Researchers Bring Asteroid Simulation Down to Earth
Millions of hypothetical impact and airburst scenarios simulated on NASA supercomputers are helping researchers develop the modeling tools we’ll need if a real asteroid is ever identified.
Learn more about NAS Division research to model hypothetical asteroid impact scenarios
NASA Calls on Gamers, Citizen Scientists to Help Map World’s Corals
NASA invites video gamers and citizen scientists to embark on virtual ocean research expeditions to help map coral reefs around the world. Players actions help train NASA’s Pleiades supercomputer to recognize corals from any image of the ocean floor, even those taken with less powerful instruments.
Read more on the how Pleiades has been used for a video game to map coral reefs
Can Enough Federal Petaflops Whack the Virus?
In taking on the current “moonshot”—the pandemic”—NASA and other government agencies have something those punchcard-blackboard-era scientists and engineers did not: supercomputers. NAS Division Chief Piyush Mehrotra spoke with Federal Drive’s Tom Temin about the agency’s role in providing supercomputing cycles to fight COVID-19. Listen to the podcast: Tackling the Coronavirus with Supercomputers
Read interview with NAS Division Chief Piyush Mehrotra on support for COVID-19 research
NASA Joins COVID-19 HPC Consortium
To help meet the challenge facing the nation and the world, NASA has joined the COVID-19 HPC Consortium, which seeks to empower researchers around the world to accelerate understanding of the COVID-19 virus and the development of treatments and vaccines. NASA's High-End Computing Capability will provide resources to researchers selected by a panel of experts, who will quickly assess potential impact, computational feasibility, overall resource requirements, and timeline.
We All Live In A Croissant-Shaped Giant Bubble, Say Astronomers
Physicists have revealed a new model of the heliosphere—the vast extent of the solar wind from the Sun out to interstellar space. Developed on NASA’s Pleiades supercomputer, the model depicts the heliosphere as a crescent-shaped magnetic force field resembling a freshly baked croissant.
Read more on solar research results obtained on NAS Facility supercomputers
Galactic Center Visualization Delivers Star Power
By combining the power of the systems at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Facility with data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, researchers have created a new immersive, ultra-high-definition 360-degree visualization of the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
How Quiet Can You Go?
Full-scale simulations of a Boeing 777 run on the NAS facility’s Pleiades supercomputer by scientist Mehdi Khorrami, NASA Langley Research Center, aim to reduce aircraft landing noise and improve the quality of life for communities near major airports.
Pluto's Icy Nitrogen Heart Makes its Atmosphere Spin Backwards
A weather forecast simulation run at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division shows that cyclical changes in nitrogen ice on Pluto's surface drive winds that blow in the opposite direction to the frigid world’s spin.
Read more weather forecast simulations and Pluto’s atmosphere.
Supercomputer Simulations Reveal Details of Galaxy Clusters
Inspired by the science fiction of the spacefaring Romulans of Star Trek, astrophysicists have developed cosmological computer simulations called RomulusC and run it on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the US, including NASA's Pleiades supercomputer. With a focus on black hole physics, RomulusC has produced some of the highest resolution simulations ever of galaxy clusters, which can contain hundreds or even thousands of galaxies.
Read more on how Pleiades helps to map out the unknown universe
