Understanding the nature of the first stars and galaxies, which formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, is at the frontier of modern cosmology. They lie just above the horizon of what is currently observable, but NASA is preparing to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, which will soon replace the Hubble and which will be able to directly probe them. |
| In preparing for this key upcoming mission it is important to predict the properties of the first sources of light. This site highlights the work of Volker Bromm’s astronomy research group at The University of Texas at Austin. Graduate students Jarrett Johnson and Thomas Greif simulate these first stars using TeraGrid computers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. TACC research assistants Paul Navrátil and Karla Vega have created the visualizations of ihe cosmological data on this site. |
| This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0708795." |
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Hydrogen density interaction with high-energy, ionizing photons during the formation and decay of eight stars. (54 seconds) |
Molecular density interaction with high-energy, ionizing photons during the formation and decay of eight stars. (21 seconds) |
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