In 2014, a multi-institution team led by researchers at the Heidelberg Institute of Theoretical Studies (HITS) created the largest cosmological simulation of galaxy ever created. The computational project, dubbed Illustris, allowed researchers to better understand how galaxies sprouted up across the universe, and was run on the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing’s (GCS’) SuperMUC supercomputer at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, one of the three GCS centres, located in Garching near Munich.
In 2018, the team broke its own record with the “Illustris: The Next Generation” simulation at another GCS member centre, the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart. In honor of the team’s contributions to cosmology over the last several years, the German Federal Post Office (Deutsche Post) recently released as postage stamp commemorating the simulation.
“We are very proud of our long-time users for being associated with so many print publications,” jokes GCS Managing Director Claus-Axel Müller.
For more information on the Illustris project, click here.
For more information about the team’s recent research, click here.
For more information about purchasing the stamp, click here.