Chris Lawrence, VFX Supervisor for the London-based company Framestore specializing in producing visual effects for film and advertising,  made a recent visit to the ICG to give a talk at one of the institute’s weekly seminars.  In his talk, Chris explained how he and his team created the spectacular visual effects and imagery for the films Gravity and The Martian, which in some cases involved using actual scientific data.  The major success of Gravity won him and his team an Oscar, BAFTA, and VES award for Best Visual Effects and The Martian earned the team a second Oscar nomination.

A team of astrophysicists at the University of Portsmouth have created the largest ever map of cosmic voids and superclusters in the Universe, which helps solve a long-standing cosmological mystery.

The map of the positions of voids – large empty spaces which contain relatively few galaxies – and superclusters – huge regions with many more galaxies than normal – can be used to measure the effect of dark energy `stretching’ the Universe.

The results confirm the predictions of Einstein’s theory of gravity.

Lead author Dr Seshadri Nadathur from the University’s Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation said: “We used a new technique to make a very precise measurement of the effect that these structures have on photons from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – light left over from shortly after the Big Bang – passing through them.

“Light from the CMB travels through such voids and superclusters on its way to us. According to Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, the stretching effect of dark energy causes a tiny change in the temperature of CMB light depending on where it came from. Photons of light travelling through voids should appear slightly colder than normal and those arriving from superclusters should appear slightly hotter.

“This is known as the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect.

“When this effect was studied by astronomers at the University of Hawai’i in 2008 using an older catalogue of voids and superclusters, the effect seemed to be five times bigger than predicted. This has been puzzling scientists for a long time, so we looked at it again with new data.”

To create the map of voids and superclusters, the Portsmouth team used more than three-quarters of a million galaxies identified by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This gave them a catalogue of structures more than 300 times bigger than the one previously used.

The scientists then used large computer simulations of the Universe to predict the size of the ISW effect. Because the effect is so small, the team had to develop a powerful new statistical technique to be able to measure it the CMB data.

They applied this technique to CMB data from the Planck satellite, and were able to make a very precise measurement of the ISW effect of the voids and superclusters. Unlike in the previous work, they found that the new result agreed extremely well with predictions using Einstein’s gravity.

Dr Nadathur said: “Our results resolve one long-standing cosmological puzzle, but doing so has deepened the mystery of a very unusual ‘Cold Spot’ in the CMB.

“It has been suggested that the Cold Spot could be due to the ISW effect of a gigantic ‘supervoid’ which has been seen in that region of the sky. But if Einstein’s gravity is correct, the supervoid isn’t big enough to explain the Cold Spot.

“It was thought that there was some exotic gravitational effect contradicting Einstein which would simultaneously explain both the Cold Spot and the unusual ISW results from Hawai’i. But this possibility has been set aside by our new measurement – and so the Cold Spot mystery remains unexplained.”

The paper is published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

From the University of Portsmouth Press Office

From the University of Portsmouth Press Office:

Astronaut and University of Portsmouth alumnus Tim Peake has confirmed his attendance at a UK Space Agency Schools Conference to be hosted by the University on Wednesday, 2 November.

Tim will attend the conference, which celebrates the work of over a million UK school students inspired by his Principia mission, which saw the flight dynamics and evaluation graduate spend more than six months on board the International Space Station.

Youngsters will have the chance to present their work through talks and exhibitions to Tim and experts from the UK Space Agency, European Space Agency (ESA), partner organisations and the space sector.  

Tim, who is Britain’s first ESA astronaut, said: “Encouraging students to engage with my Principia mission was always something that I had hoped to do and I am thrilled at the range of different things young people have done to follow my mission. I’m really looking forward to hearing about their work direct from the young people themselves.”

The UK Space Agency has invested £3 million in the biggest education and outreach initiative ever undertaken for an ESA astronaut. Over a million young people have taken part in a broad spectrum of curriculum-linked projects, including scientific experiments, coding challenges, family shows at local science centres, creative writing and more.

University of Portsmouth Vice-Chancellor Professor Graham Galbraith said: “It’s a great honour for us to welcome one of our most celebrated alumni back to the University for this prestigious event.

“Tim’s six-month mission on board the International Space Station was an inspiration to schoolchildren everywhere, so we are delighted that he will visiting Portsmouth in November and seeing for himself just how his achievements have fired the imaginations of the next generation of scientists and space explorers.”

A second conference will take place at the University of York on Saturday, 5 November.

Jeremy Curtis, Head of Education and Skills for the UK Space Agency, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for students and pupils to find out what it’s like to be part of a professional conference. We want to celebrate the achievements of young people across the whole country, to meet with them and to hear more about what they have done. It’s great that Tim is able to join us for both of these events.”

There is still time for young people to apply to be one of the 500 students that will be invited to attend each conference.

Individuals or groups of young people of school age are able to apply to come to the conference and present or exhibit their work by submitting short accounts or write-ups of their project(s) or work, along with a covering note from a responsible adult. Applications should explain to the judging panel what the young people have done, why they should come to a conference, and what they would present at the conference.

The conferences will be free to attend, with travel bursaries available to help those coming from further distances.

Full details of how to apply are available on the Principia website.

Applications must be received at the UK Space Agency by 12 noon on Thursday 15 September 2016.