I saw the thread where Travis explained everything. I saw equations, talk of data fitness, and something about genetic models. How you'd have one model and the next model would take what was in that and then add to it 5 mins later.

OK, whatever. I thought this was supposed to show us the reality of the galaxy. I think I know a lot about space, and dare I say as much as I want to know about astro-physics. And what I heard in the explanation of this program made me detail from it.

What is this project about? Are we guessing what may be in the galaxy? Or are we looking and making a 3-D model of what is in the galaxy? And how did Travis explanation post, previously linked on the front page not deviate from that?

Hello,

There is a similar explanation of the science side of this project that I wrote stickied at the top of these (science) forums-- it has pictures and animations and whatnot. Here is a direct link,

http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/forum_thread.php?id=902

If you have any more questions, just ask.

John Vickers

I'd like to hear it in a nutshell. Some projects hope to find cures for diseases. Others might help chemists synthesize new materials or whatever. What is your goal? Do you even have anything like a goal besides satysfying your curiosity?

I have a summary presentation, and explanation, on this (sticky) thread:

http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/forum_thread.php?id=1716#39269

The overarching, big question that we hope to answer with this project is:

---Find Dark Matter---

If only it were that easy. :)
We know that dark matter has to exist, or that our theory of gravity is wrong. To date, modified theories of gravity have been unable to account for all observed phenomena. So we look for dark matter.

Dark matter is tricky to find, since it emits no radiation - no microwaves, no visible light, no x-rays - nothing. The only way it interacts with normal matter is through the gravitational force - which is easier to see at large distances.

We can determine the mass distribution of our galaxy by studying the structure and paths of objects orbiting it. From there, we can start looking at places where there should be mass, but isn't 'lit up'. There's a good chance that there's dark matter there.

Once we know where it is, we we have a better handle on what it is - which could affect us here on the Earth! After all, current estimates state that there is almost 6x as much dark matter out there as light matter!

That's it in a nutshell - more questions are welcome!

-Matthew

Thank you. That is indeed a noble goal (and there's nothing more meaningful to run on ATI GPUs anyway).

Thank you. Reading your summary while going along with the power point helped make what you guys are attemping to do more clear.

Very well done. Where's the thumbs up emoticon? :)

any thoughts to producing an updating graphic that represents what the user is processing as well as an updating graphic that shows the galaxy as processed so far by the project. You astronomers may know exactly what you are looking at, but the people that are just lending their CPUs to the project need to see something more than a timer and a total number of units processed.

Yeah, if you could make some kind of graphics for this Project, that would be great.

We've been working on that - see our YouTube channel!

http://www.youtube.com/user/MilkywayAtHomeRPI

I've recently re-started MW after several months break, I see there is a new app running within MW. I can't find any info on the front page about it or here. Google throws up lots of results about updates but I didn't see any about an explanation

What's the 'separation modified fit' about?

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Team AnandTech - SETI@H, DPAD, F@H, MW@H, A@H, LHC, POGS, R@H, Einstein@H, DHEP, WCG

Main rig - Ryzen 5 3600, MSI B450 G.Pro C. AC, RTX 3060Ti 8GB, 32GB DDR4 3200, Win 10 64bit
2nd rig - i7 4930k @4.1 GHz, HD 7870 XT 3GB(DS), 16GB DDR3 1866, Win7

Anyone??

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Team AnandTech - SETI@H, DPAD, F@H, MW@H, A@H, LHC, POGS, R@H, Einstein@H, DHEP, WCG

Main rig - Ryzen 5 3600, MSI B450 G.Pro C. AC, RTX 3060Ti 8GB, 32GB DDR4 3200, Win 10 64bit
2nd rig - i7 4930k @4.1 GHz, HD 7870 XT 3GB(DS), 16GB DDR3 1866, Win7