MilkyWay at Home

RPI is conducting their annual CII power maintenance between May 8th and May 10th. As a precaution, we will need to shutdown the server during this time.
We will have the server back up and running as soon as possible.

Hey Volunteers,

The server is currently down for maintenance. It will probably be down at least through the rest of the day. We hope to be back to normal service in a day or two.

Thanks for the patience!

With the help of tens of thousands of volunteers from around the world, we've been able to reconstruct a dwarf galaxy that left a stream of stars in the night sky! This object was ripped apart billions of years ago by the Milky Way.

Learn more here:

Newswise | Page not found Newswise gives journalists access to the latest news and provides a platform for universities, institutions, and journalists to spread breaking news to their audience.

We have measured the original shape and mass of the dwarf galaxy that was ripped apart to make the Orphan-Chenab Stream!

Professor Heidi Jo Newberg has made a video explaining the Orphan-Chenab progenitor result:
14 minutes: https://youtu.be/ma44b8-SLcA

Or, for more information, there is a longer, 24 minute version: https://youtu.be/eATUWTwdOgc

The paper is out today: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ac498a

Thank you to all of the MW@home volunteers, who make it possible for us to locate dark matter in the Milky Way!!!!

Estimate of the Mass and Radial Profile of the Orphan–Chenab Stream's Dwarf-galaxy Progenitor Using MilkyWay@home - IOPscience The American Astronomical Society (AAS), established in 1899 and based in Washington, DC, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. Its membership of about 7,000 individuals also includes physicists, mathematicians, geologists, engineers, and others whose research and e...

The MilkyWay@home website is currently down. We believe this is an RPI network issue, not a problem with MilkyWay@home. We will update you as soon as the problem is resolved or we know more.

Thanks for all the help and your continued patience!

MilkyWay is back up and running! We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you to all our volunteers for your patience.

For more information, please check the MilkyWay@home website here:

Where MilkyWay@home Was The Last Few Days Unfortunately, Internet protocol technology did not pay due attention to abuse in its design. Firmware technology used in routers and motherboards ignored this threat, even though it was detected and known for most of the current decade (e.g.: trapdoor chip). Recent performance advances in computer....

MilkyWay@home is expected to remain down for the next couple days. We do not have a timeline on when the RPI network issues will be resolved. We will let you all know as soon as we find out more about the situation. Thank you again for your patience!

MilkyWay@home is currently down due to network issues at RPI. As soon as we know more about the situation, we will let you know. Thank you volunteers for your patience and for all of the work you do for this project.

Did you know that our Milky Way Galaxy has shells? These were formed from a head-on collision between the Milky Way and another galaxy roughly 3 billion years ago! Hear Dr. Heidi Jo Newberg explain the topic here:

The discovery of shell structure in the Milky Way galaxy The Milky Way is a dynamic place, shaped by infalling dwarf galaxies that are pulled apart to make the stellar halo. The disk (and spiral structure) of the M...

Interested in running simulations of dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way on your own computer? Looking for reputable, free software to run N-body simulations? Learn about our MilkyWay@home N-body Lite software here:

MilkyWay@home Nbody Lite Introducing N-body software for generating tidal streams from dwarf galaxies that fall into the Milky Way galaxy.

MilkyWay@home was featured in an Astrobites article yesterday! To learn more about our efforts to rewind stellar streams using volunteer computers, and ultimately measure the dark matter content of disrupted dwarf galaxies, read the article here:

A supercomputer made of idle CPUs rewinds stellar streams Astronomers connect volunteered computers on MilkyWay@home and model the dark matter content of dwarf galaxies.

Listen to the latest episode of RPI's "Why Not Change the World" podcast, where MilkyWay@home scientists Heidi Jo Newberg and Thomas Donlon discuss their recent discoveries involving a 3 billion year old "T-bone" collision between a dwarf galaxy and the Milky Way!

Discoveries Made In and About Space Featured in New RPI Podcast Episode | News & Events A blog including the voices of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and alumnae from Rensselaer who are making a difference in the world.