CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Oct. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. cosmologists are asking computer users around the world to help them realize a better understanding of the mysteries of the universe.
University of Illinois researchers have designed a distributed computing project that will allow people to participate in cutting-edge cosmology research by donating their unused computing cycles.
The project, called Cosmology@Home, is similar to SETI@Home -- a popular program that searches radio telescope data for evidence of extraterrestrial transmissions.
"When you run Cosmology@Home on your computer, it uses part of the computer's processing power, disk space and network bandwidth," said project leader Benjamin Wandelt, a professor of astronomy and physics at UI. "Our goal is to search for cosmological models that describe our universe and agree with available astronomical and particle physics data."
Participating computers will be used to calculate the observable predictions of millions of theoretical models with different parameters. The predictions are then compared with actual data, including fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, large-scale distributions of galaxies, and the acceleration of the universe.
Additional information on the National Science Foundation-funded program is available at http://cosmologyathome.org.
