Miguel Aragón-Calvo, a visiting assistant researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.develop an automated method to identify and track the cosmic web across time in computer simulations. This is usually done by identifying structures at different times and then somehow linking structures in adjacent times,” he said.  “Current techniques using this approach are far from optimal.”

“These problems in cosmology are very difficult to visualize, even using computer graphics,” said Miguel Aragón-Calvo, a visiting assistant researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.  “By 3D-printing them I am able to interact directly with the models and ‘see’ the problem at once.  In some cases this results in ‘eureka’ moments.”

3-D print universal Structures for visualization - Credit Youtube
3-D print universal Structures for visualization - Credit Youtube

“Tri-dimensional cosmic structures can be easily identified and tracked as four-dimensional objects where time is taken as another spatial variable,” he said.  “Even though I had visualized the cosmic web many times before in the computer screen, the solution only became obvious once I held the model in my hand.”

http://universityofcalifornia.edu/news/universe-your-hand