Galaxy evolution research among most cited of past decade

(16 July 2020)

The EAGLE Project. Simulating the universe

A supercomputer simulation carried out in Durham that realistically calculates the formation of galaxies from the Big Bang to the present day is one of cosmology’s most popular research papers of the past decade.

The research by the EAGLE (Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments) project is second out of the top 100 most cited papers published in the prestigious journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) between 2010 and 2020. More than 36,000 papers were published in MNRAS during this time.

From 2015, when the paper was published, to 2020, fellow scientists around the world have referenced the EAGLE findings more than 1,500 times in their own research papers.

Galaxy evolution

EAGLE is an international research project led by The Virgo Consortium of which Durham is the base.

The project produces realistic 3D computer simulations aimed at understanding how galaxies form and evolve.

Researchers take the laws of physics, with parameters informed by limited data from the observed universe, and programme them into the Cosmology machine (COSMA) supercomputer, part of the DiRAC (Distributed Research utilizing Advanced Computing), facility based in Durham.

Star formation

The highly-cited research was carried out on COSMA and the Curie supercomputer in France.

The result saw researchers simulate thousands of galaxies which turned out to have similar mass, size, age and dark matter content to those observed in the universe.

The simulated galaxies are a much closer reflection of real galaxies thanks to researchers being able to simulate detailed physical processes such as the formation of black holes at the centres of galaxies and strong galactic winds that blow away the gas supply needed for the formation of stars.

Find out more

• Read the highly-cited EAGLE research paper in MNRAS and our news story about the findings. See the paper’s position in the citations table.

• Durham’s involvement in EAGLE is led by our Institute for Computational Cosmology. EAGLE is a project of The Virgo Consortium for Cosmological Simulations.

• Virgo is partly funded in the UK by the UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council, which also part-funded this highly-cited research.

• We’re first in the UK, third in Europe and joint fifth in the world for the strength of our research in Space Science.

• Learn more about our Cosmology and Astronomy research.

• Discover more about the COSMA supercomputer, part of the DiRAC High Performance Computing facility, which is funded by the UKRI Science and Technology Facilities Council.

• Undergraduate and postgraduate opportunities in Physics.