The Center for Computational Astrophysics executes research programs on systems ranging in scales from planets to cosmology, creating and using computational tools for data analysis and theory. It also supports, trains, and equips diverse members of the global astrophysics community and convenes events and workshops in New York City.
Featured News
Center for Computational Astrophysics
Seeing the Early Universe Through a Simulation
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Computational models are empowering researchers to understand observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, painting a virtual picture of the early universe.
Our Mission:
▪ Solve important, hard problems in computational astrophysics. Focus on problems that we at Flatiron are uniquely positioned to solve. ▪ Invent and propagate better data-analysis practices, analytical methods and computational methods for the global astrophysics community, with a focus on rigor. ▪ Develop, maintain and contribute to open-source software packages, open data and their communities. ▪ Create and support a community of astrophysics doers, learners and mentors in New York City and beyond. ▪ Train and launch diverse early-career researchers in astrophysics with unique capabilities in computational methods.
Groups
Collaborative Work
Learning the Universe
This collaboration, directed by Greg Bryan of Columbia University, aims to understand and determine the evolution and initial conditions of our universe, using observations via a Bayesian forward modeling approach.
- CCA
- | Columbia University
- | Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
- | Harvard University
- | Stockholm University
- | Institute D'Astrophysique de Paris
- | Université de Montreal
- | Princeton University
- | Carnegie Mellon University
- | Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics
Upcoming Events
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02 Fri -
Event 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
CCA Colloquium: Xavier Prochaska
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Event 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
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06 Tue -
Seminar 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
FI Computational Methods and Data Science Journal Club: Benjamin Wandelt (CCA)
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Seminar 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
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13 Tue -
Seminar 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
FI Computational Methods and Data Science Journal Club: Larry Saul (CCM)
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Seminar 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
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14 Wed -
Event 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
ISM Salon – Fall 2022
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Event 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
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15 Thu -
Event 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
CCA Colloquium: Kate Daniel
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Event 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Event Videos
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Dan Huber: The Demographic of Star and Exoplanets in the Era of TESS Gaia
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Daniel Foreman-Mackey: Introduction to Gaussian Processes for Astronomy
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Mariangela Lisanti: Galactic Probes of Fundamental Dark Matter Physics
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Jamie Taylor: The Evolution of Stellar Rotation: Alone and Together, Inside and Out
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Research Highlights
Chemodynamical Signatures of Bar Resonances in the Galactic Disk: Current Data and Future Prospects
A. Wheeler , I. Abril-Cabezas, W. H. Trick, F. Fragkoudi, M. Ness
The Galactic disk exhibits complex chemical and dynamical substructure thought to be induced by the bar, spiral arms, and satellites.…
The Astrophysical JournalThe Open Cluster Chemical Abundances and Mapping Survey. VI. Galactic Chemical Gradient Analysis from APOGEE DR17
N. Meyers, J. Donor, T. Spoo, P. M. Frinchaboy, K. Cunha, A. Price-Whelan, S. R. Majewski, R. L. Beaton, G. Zasowski, J. O'Connell, A. E. Ray, D. Bizyaev, C. Chiappini, D. A. García-Hernández, D. Geisler, H. Jönsson, R. R. Lane, P. Longa-Peña, I. Minchev, D. Minniti, C. Nitschelm, A. Roman-Lopes
The goal of the Open Cluster Chemical Abundances and Mapping (OCCAM) survey is to constrain key Galactic dynamic and chemical…
The Astronomical JournalModules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Time-Dependent Convection, Energy Conservation, Automatic Differentiation, and Infrastructure
A. Jermyn, E. B. Bauer, J. Schwab, R. Farmer, W. H. Ball, E. P. Bellinger, A. Dotter, M. Joyce, P. Marchant, J. S. G. Mombarg, W. M. Wolf, T. L. S. Wong, G. C. Cinquegrana, E. Farrell, R. Smolec, A. Thoul, M. Cantiello, F. Herwig, O. Toloza, L. Bildsten, R. H. D. Townsend, F. X. Timmes
We update the capabilities of the open-knowledge software instrument Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA). The new auto_diff module…
arXiv: 2208.03651Director
Software
Gala
Galactic Dynamics is the study of the formation, history, and evolution of galaxies using the orbits of objects — numerically-integrated trajectories of stars, dark matter particles, star clusters, or galaxies themselves.
STARRY
starry enables the computation of fast and precise light curves for various applications in astronomy: transits and secondary eclipses of exoplanets, light curves of eclipsing binaries, rotational phase curves of exoplanets, light curves of planet-planet and planet-moon occultations, and more.
George
George is a fast and flexible Python library for Gaussian Process Regression. It capitalizes on the Hierarchical Off-Diagonal Low-Rank formalism to make controlled approximations for fast execution.
celerite
celerite is a library for fast and scalable Gaussian Process (GP) Regression in one dimension with implementations in C++, Python, and Julia.
Astrometry.net
If you have astronomical imaging of the sky with celestial coordinates you do not know—or do not trust—then Astrometry.net is for you. Input an image and we'll give you back astrometric calibration meta-data, plus lists of known objects falling inside the field of view.
DAFT
Daft is a Python package that uses matplotlib to render pixel-perfect probabilistic graphical models for publication in a journal or on the internet.
emcee
emcee is an extensible, pure-Python implementation of Goodman & Weare's Affine Invariant Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) Ensemble sampler. It's designed for Bayesian parameter estimation.