A number of our research projects have been picked up by various blogs and news organizations. It’s always fun to get the chance to talk to science journalists and through them, to the public. Here are some links to coverage of our work, which might help explain some of the topics we’re studying.
Coverage of the FIRE (Feedback in Realistic Environments) simulations:
FIRE simulations are also featured in the films “Star Men” (Director Alison E. Rose, 2015) symphonic film “Deep Field” (Composer/director Eric Whitacre, 2019). These have played at a variety of film festivals and special screenings, limited theatrical releases, and planetaria throughout the country.
Recently our simulations have also been incorporated into “Stellarscape” an immersive multimedia performance synthesizing music, science, visual
art, and technology. The performance includes live musicians, sensors,
electronic music, and dance, all collaborating through interactive
cinematography The result combines kinesthetic and acoustic sensing with
astrophysical simulations of star formation in real time.
FIRE discovery of a way to make galaxies without dark matter:
Scientific American: Cosmic Simulations Show how Dark-Matter Deficient Galaxies Confront Goliath and Survive
UCI News: UCI Scientists Discover How Galaxies Can Exist without Dark Matter
Princeton University Press: Astrophysicists Find a Way to Form Dark-Matter Deficient Galaxies
Pomona College News: Pomona Professor Leads Research Into Galaxies Lacking Dark Matter
FIRE predictions for new types of dark matter:
Space.com: Dark matter atoms may form shadowy galaxies with rapid star formation
Phys.org: Dark matter can make dark atoms, say theoretical physicists
FIRE predictions for the origin of the Milky Way and tiny “dwarf” galaxies:
Sky & Telescope: The Alignment of the Milky Way’s Entourage, Explained
CNN: New stars found in the Milky Way were born outside of it
Phys.org: New collection of stars, not born in our galaxy, discovered in Milky Way
Sci-Tech Daily: Nyx: Stellar Stream of Stars Discovered in Milky Way That Originated in Another Galaxy
Science News: Stars Born in Outflows May Populate Halos of Milky Way-Like Galaxies
Universe Today: A Stellar Stream of Stars, Stolen from Another Galaxy
EarthSky: Milky Way could be catapulting stars into its outer halo
TheNextWeb: Meet the astrophysicist who found Nyx, a new family of stars beyond the Milky Way
Medium: Dwarf galaxies pose a new problem for models of the early universe
Science Daily: New collection of stars, not born in our galaxy, discovered in Milky Way
Knowable: How Gas Fuels Galaxies and The Life and Breath of Galaxies
Physics Today: Supernovae, SuperComputers, and Galactic Evolution
Caltech News: Re-Creating our Galaxy on a Supercomputer (with video)
Youtube link to the video, and Additional videos and explanation
Popular Mechanics: Astronomers Created the Most Detailed Computer Model of the Galaxy
Discovery: How the Universe’s Age Could Tell Us How It Will End
Eureka alert: Reconciling dwarf galaxies with dark matter (with video)
Sky & Telescope: Missing Dwarf Galaxies Never Were
Science News: Possible perp found in mystery of Milky Way’s missing galaxy pals
Inside Wales: A Vast Stream of Flowing Stars Is Proof of The Milky Way’s Violent History
Eureka Alert: New collection of stars, not born in our galaxy, discovered in Milky Way
Interesting Engineering: Galaxy Simulations Solve Missing Satellites Mystery
American Astronomical Society Meeting 228, San Diego, Press Conference (click on “From Molecules to Galaxies”, FIRE conference begins at 14:00)
Tech Times: How a Texas Supercomputer Solved an Interstellar Mystery (or see version at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, with video & audio)
Universe Today: Using the ‘Missing Physics’ of Stellar Feedback to Accurately Simulate Galaxies from the Big Bang to Today
Sky & Telescope: Why Galaxies Delay Star Birth
iTechPost: Caltech Designs A Computer Simulation Of The Milky Way Galaxy
American Astronomical Society Meeting 224, Boston, 2014, Press Conference (click on “An Astronomical Assortment” under the Boston AAS 224, June 2014 header, FIRE conference begins at 14:10)
Space.com: Milky Way CSI: Were Galaxy 'Homicides' an Inside Job?
The Daily Galaxy: "Mystery of 'Missing Physics' in the Universe” - Solved by CalTech Astrophysicists
SciTechDaily: Study Shows Dark Matter Dominates Nearby Dwarf Galaxy Triangulum II (also picked up by 14u News)
Engadget: Supercomputer gives most accurate picture yet of star formation
The Daily: The Universe on a Computer: The Formation of Galaxies, Stars and Planets in a Violent Cosmos
HPC Wire: Supercomputer Research Reveals Star Cluster Born Outside Our Galaxy
Science Times: Evidence of Stars Born Elsewhere Suddenly Merged With the Milky Way
Science News: Milky Way Captured Few Dwarf Galaxies from Nearby Large Magellanic Cloud
DPA: Mapping the Milky Way: Supercomputers help discover new collection of 250 stars
The Independent: Scientists find Stream of Stars in our Galaxy that Appear to have Come from Somewhere Else
Science News: Astronomers Find Stellar Stream of Extragalactic Origin in the Vicinity of the Sun
Webby Feed: Is Our Milky Way Galaxy casting Stars towards its Outer Halo? – What Could Cause Such Phenomenon
Cosmos Magazine: Fossil Galaxy found deep in the Milky Way
Caltech: About our Simons Investigator Award
Bulletins of the American Astronomical Society: The Radcliffe Wave on FIRE: Hunting for Sinusoidal ISM Gas Structures in Simulated Milky Way Disks
FIRE shows binary stars may be critical for re-ionizing the Universe:
AstroBites: “Brilliant Binaries” Explain Re-Ionization
FIRE predicts new instabilities in galactic nuclei:
AstroBites: Waltz Across Galactic Nuclei: An Instability in the centers of Galaxies
FIRE shows that half of our Galaxy's gas supply may have been “stolen” from other galaxies:
Futurism: Milky Way’s Origins are Not what they Seem
BigThink: We are “Extragalactic Immigrants”
Science News for Students: Half the Milky Way may be Stolen Material
Sky & Telescope: Milky Way may be Made with Swapped Gas
Science Alert: Half our Bodies’ Atoms Could Have Come from Outside the Galaxy
Gizmodo: Half of Our Galaxy Might have Come from Other Galaxies
Seeker: As Much as Half the Milky Way Likely Came from Distant Galaxies
Science News: Half the MIlky Way Comes from Other Galaxies
FIRE predictions for super-luminous galaxies at high redshifts (the sub-millimeter galaxies):
Sky & Telescope: Making the Brightest, Rarest Galaxies
The Verge: Computer models reveal how the Universe’s biggest and brightest Galaxies Formed
Space.com: Mystery Solved? How the Universe’s Brightest-Ever Galaxies Formed
LA Times: Why were some ancient galaxies so bright?
Vice.com: Why the Brightest Galaxies Create 1,000 Times More Stars than Ours
Science: Why are Some Galaxies a Thousand Times Brighter than the Milky Way?
Popular Mechanics: We’ve finally discovered What’s Driving the Most Impossibly Bright Galaxies in the Universe
Additional FIRE coverage:
Before It’s News: Project FIRE Uses Star Feedback to Explain Less Massive Galaxies
Caltech News: Galaxies on FIRE: Star Feedback Results in Less Massive Galaxies (also at Science Daily)
Boing-Boing: Making Galaxies on a Supercomputer (also Scimplified blog, Nature World News, IFL Science, Neuz)
Northwestern News: Galaxies on FIRE: Stellar Feedback Explains Cosmologically Inefficient Star Formation
Northwestern News: Feedback-regulated Star formation and the FIRE Simulations
Science Daily: Dark Matter dominates in nearby Dwarf Galaxy
Daily Mail: Watch the Milky Way being Born in a Few Seconds
Daily Galaxy: Milky Way's Nearby Dark-Matter Hotspot
New Simulations Provide Clues to Galaxies Mass: picked up at Yahoo, WebIndia, NewsPoint, ZeeNews, Business Standard, Stranger than Science Fiction, Business Insider, Dark Matter Dark Energy, Carnegie Observatories, Science Daily
Simons Foundation News: New Institute Pushes the Boundaries of Big Data
The Evolving Planet: Study Suggests Supernovas Destroyed Galaxies Near Milky Way
CWRU: "The Daily": “The Universe on a Computer: The Formation of Galaxies, Stars and Planets in a Violent Cosmos”
Quanta Magazine: The Universe Is Not a Simulation, but We Can Now Simulate It
American Scientist: Why Do Galaxies Start Out as Cosmic Pickles?
Science: The galaxy Builders
Coverage of the STARFORGE simulations of how stars form:
Sci-Tech Daily: STARFORGE: Stunning Simulation of Stars Being Born Is Most Realistic Ever
Science News: Watch this beautiful, high-resolution simulation of how stars are born
Nature Astronomy: Feedback gets a stellar review
Astronomy Picture of the Day: STARFORGE, a Star Formation Simulation
Northwestern Now: Stunning simulation of stars being born is most realistic ever
Astrobits: The Recipe for Star Cluster Soup
The Independent: Scientists build ‘Starforge’, world’s most realistic simulation of stars being born
Yahoo News: University of Texas researchers discover answer to how stars form
Universe Today: In Wildly Different Environments, Stars End Up Roughly the Same
New Scientist: Watch the best ever simulation of stars being born in a cosmic cloud
Live Science: Watch this Simulation of Stars Being Born
Telescope Live: STARFORGE: A Spectacular Simulation of Stars Being Born
CNet: Astronomers create most realistic simulation of stars being born -- and it's beautiful
CNN: Watch this Trippy Simulation of Stars Being Born
CNN: This is what it looks like when a star is born
Extreme Tech: Stunning New Model Simulates Star Formation in Highest-Ever Resolution
Interesting Engineering: Birth of a Star: Scientists Create a Realistic Simulation
Nerdist: Watch a Supercomputer Simulation of a Star Forming
ZME Science: Scientists Find a New Way to Make Virtual Stars
Space.com: Watch this Stunning STARFORGE simulation of a star being born (also on Reddit), and Stars appear to regulate their own masses during formation
Science Alert: This Jaw-Dropping Simulation gives us our best look yet at baby stars being born
Syfy Wire: Witness the wonders of star formation in this incredibly detailed 3D simulation
Newsweek: Video Shows What Happens When a Star Is Born, According to Scientists
Science Times: How are Stars Born? Computer Simulation Realistically Shows Breathtaking Stellar Formation
Daily Kos: Top Comments, Star Formation Edition
Phys.org: Exploring how stars determine their own masses
Sci News: Star Formation is Self-Regulatory Process, New Research Suggests
NSF Research News: Stars determine their own masses
Sky & Telescope interview with STARFORGE lead Mike Grudic: AAVSO "Superstar Astronomers" with Dr. Mike Grudić
Coverage of our work on the origin of the LIGO black holes:
Scientific American: Scientists Run Stellar Autopsies on Colliding Black Holes
Coverage of our predictions for Planet Formation
(and atmospheric dynamics):
Scientific American: Planet Formation? It’s a Drag (if that doesn’t work, try this alternate link)
"How the seeds of planets take shape,” covered by Caltech News, Phys.org, upCosmos.com:
AAS Nova: When Is Moving Dust Unstable?
Andy Lloyd's Dark Star Blog: How Dust Clumps Together in Space
Coverage of our predictions of “Totally Metal Stars” and how Dust and Gas interact in Star Formation:
I recommend checking out this very descriptive and excellent writeup on the physics arXiv blog
SciShow Space YouTube Program (video)
A New Class of Stars is Made Entirely of Metal: picked up by io9, Fark, Slashdot, Reddit, Science Alert, Nautilus,
Time: Millions of Stars May Be Made of Nothing But Metal
Beyond Earthly Skies: A New Class of Totally Metal Stars
Astrobites: Dust Does Not Follow Gas
Coverage of our work on the formation and growth of Super-Massive Black Holes:
“A Quasar in Every Galaxy?”: A writeup by Robert Irion in a special issue of Sky & Telescope, available here and here
An interview with me on Korean radio (TBS eFM’s “This Morning”), discussing our work on black holes in the context of the recent movie “Interstellar,” can be listened to here or searched for here
A television interview with me on this work aired on NHK Japan’s Series “Cosmic Front NEXT,” in the episode “Mysers of Ancient Supermassive Black Holes” (Aired July 2, 2015). Due to rights issues, the interview can only be viewed by purchasing the DVD from NHK Japan’s website.
Science News: Lopsided Stellar Disks Help Black Holes Guzzle Gas
New Scientist: Warped Stars Feed Black Holes to Fatten them Up!
Physics.org: How Do Supermassive Black Holes Get So Big?
A shout-out to our work in an excellent explanation of the growth of black holes on Tanya Urrutia’s blog
Science: Some additional interviewing and discussion of our work in the context of observations of galaxy clusters, in this Science Magazine news focus piece: “A Quest for Cosmic Karma”
Sydney News: A dormant volcano: the black hole at the heart of our galaxy
SciTech Daily: Millions of Supercomputer-Generated “Universes” Reveal How Black Holes Grow
Coverage of our work on the collisions between galaxies:
Simons Foundation News: Colliding Galaxies Move from the Lab to the Movies (with videos)
Science Magazine, News Focus: Coming Into Focus: A Universe Shaped by Violent Galaxies
Sky & Telescope: A companion to this is the set of simulation movies: “Galaxy Merger Movies”
Miscellaneous Coverage:
Astrobites: An interview at AAS 228