News & Features
Catch up on news and highlights related to NAS support for science and engineering achievements, and feature stories on our accomplishments over the last year.
NASA Launches Its Most Powerful, Efficient Supercomputer
NASA is announcing the availability of its newest supercomputer, Athena, an advanced system designed to support a new generation of missions and research projects. The newest member of the agency’s High-End Computing Capability project expands the resources available to help scientists and engineers tackle some of the most complex challenges in space, aeronautics, and science.
NASA Supercomputers Take on Life Near Greenland’s Most Active Glacier
Runoff from Greenland’s ice sheet is kicking nutrients up from the ocean depths and boosting phytoplankton growth, a new NASA-supported study has found. Using supercomputers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and the ECCO-Darwin model, the researchers calculated that deepwater nutrients buoyed upward by glacial runoff would be sufficient to boost summertime phytoplankton growth by 15 to 40% in the study area.
New Grace Hopper Nodes Double the Power of NASA's Cabeus Supercomputer
As part of the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division’s goal to provide the NASA with the computing power needed to support the agency’s missions and programs, 350 NVIDIA Grace Hopper nodes were added to the Cabeus supercomputer, providing more than 13 petaflops of computing power and more than doubling Cabeus’ total peak capability..
NASA Supercomputer Finds Billions of Comets Mimicking the Milky Way’s Shape
Spirals are a repeating theme in astronomy, with arguably the most famous example of a swirling armed structure being our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Now, using NASA's powerful Pleiades supercomputer, scientists have discovered yet another spiral structure on the edge of our solar system.
Read more about how the Pleaides supercomputer enabled discovery of anew spiral structures.
NAS 2024 Wrap-Up
As we start the new year, take some time to check out these intriguing NASA projects—all led by experts in the NAS Division in 2024. These 12 endeavors focus on improving life on Earth and on learning more about how things work in the universe! All were presented last November at SC24, the International Conference for High-Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Read more about 12 NAS Division science and engineering projects.
Donovan Mathias Named NAS Division Chief
NASA Ames has announced the appointment of Dr. Donovan Mathias as the chief of the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division, effective December 29. 2024. Mathias joined NASA in 1993. He previously served as the acting chief and deputy chief of the NAS Division, and led the Asteroid Threat Assessment Project (ATAP) and the Engineering Risk Assessment (ERA) team at Ames.
Ready, Set, Action! Our Sun is the Star in Dazzling Simulation
NASA supercomputers are shedding light on what causes some of the Sun’s most complex behaviors. Using data from the suite of active Sun-watching spacecraft currently observing the star at the heart of our solar system, researchers can explore solar dynamics like never before. Scientists in the NAS Division ran realistic models on the Pleiades, Electra, and Aitken supercomputers, allowing them to study the physics of solar plasma from tiny to large scales.
Exploring New Frontiers: HPC Infrastructure with NASA at SC24
Recorded at SC24, NASA's High-End Computing Capability Component Manager Bill Thigpen talks about the data demands of modern satellites and the impressive infrastructure required on the ground to support the uninterrupted flow of information about our planet—and everything beyond.
Hollywood Techniques Help NASA Visualize Supercomputing Data
Using the Discover supercomputer at the Center for Climate Simulation at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, visualizers use datasets generated by supercomputer models to create highly detailed, accurate, and stunning visualizations with Hollywood filmmaking tools like 3D modeling and animation. This work is one of many research projects—including exciting investigations run on systems at the NAS facility—showcased in NASA’s exhibit during SC24.
Six Ways Supercomputing Advances Our Understanding of the Universe
From understanding our own planet to exploring the farthest reaches of the cosmos, supercomputers are essential to NASA science and engineering — including space weather research, AI-based models for weather and climate science, fuel-efficient aircraft design, optimizing the launch environment for the Artemis Program, and revealing the mysteries of neutron stars. These projects are just a sample of the many that were on display in NASA’s exhibit during SC24.
NASA Research Projects Highlighted at SC24
Take a look at the NASA@SC24 website to see fascinating images and videos, and explore the latest science, engineering, and technology achievements highlighted this year at the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis, November 17–22 in Atlanta—all made possible by NASA high-end computing!
A Window into the Universe: NASA ‘hyperwall’ Advances Data Visualization at a Massive Scale
A massive visualization system that spans a large stretch of a wall at NASA’s Ames Research Center is having a big impact on scientists who are traveling from all over the world to pore over the display for research. The new hyperwall is a 300 square-foot display that gives scientists the opportunity to see and analyze high-dimensional data at an unprecedented scale and in great detail.
Find out more about the new hyperwall at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility.
Congratulations to NASA’s Europa Clipper Team on its Successful Launch!
In advance of Europa Clipper’s arrival at Jupiter’s icy moon in 2030, NASA and university researchers are using NAS systems to model phenomena such as ocean circulation beneath the moon's ice, magnetic and particle interactions between Europa and Jupiter, and possible states of the moon's interior. Their findings may help interpret observations from Clipper's mission: to search for conditions that could support life!
Modeling of Large Asteroid Impacts for Planetary Defense
Researchers in the NAS Division ran a large simulation on NASA’s Aitken supercomputer, showing the blast formation of a large imaginary asteroid. In the simulation, the asteroid’s entry and impact releases over 10 gigatons of energy in the atmosphere and on the ground. The team supports the agency’s work to find possible threatening near-Earth objects, coordinate global Planetary Defense efforts, and study technologies to mitigate these threats. See the featured video in the NAS Scientific Visualization Gallery.
Find out more about the NAS Division's asteroid risk assessment work.
NAS Supports Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, ‘Red Rover’ Team
Earlier this year, the NAS Division’s Research & Development team, in collaboration with the Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel team at NASA’s Ames Research Center, developed and deployed a complex data streaming and analysis system called Red Rover. The initial test streamed data from wind tunnel cameras to the UPWT data cache system, from which sensor data flowed to the NAS facility for further analysis and evaluation in the HECC environment.
Find out more about the NAS Division's wind tunnel test work.
NASA Ames to Host Supercomputing Resources for UC Berkeley Researchers
Under a new agreement, NASA will host supercomputing resources for the University of California, Berkeley at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility – the agency’s premiere supercomputing center. The agreement is part of an expanding partnership between Ames and UC Berkeley and will support the development of novel computing algorithms and software for a wide variety of scientific and technology areas.
Find out more about the NASA-UC Berkeley agreement at the NAS facility.
NASA’s Upgraded Hyperwall Offers Improved Data Visualization
In May, the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility, located at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, celebrated the newest generation of its hyperwall system, a wall of LCD screens that display supercomputer-scale visualizations of the very large datasets produced by NASA supercomputers and instruments.
