Earlier this month, Reach for the Stars graduate student, Zachary Hafen, received an honorable mention for his contribution to this year’s annual Scientific Images Convention, hosted by the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI).

Hafen was joined by other Northwestern scientists and engineers, all looking to share their research—via unique and cutting-edge images—with the public. Hafen’s contribution is titled “One Galaxy, Multiple Perspectives”, and is a computer simulation rendered in Python (matplotlib).

In Hafen’s own words, the collection of images show “gas swirling around the same galaxy in several different ways. Taken together, these snapshots create a time-lapse projection. The top row shows the density of gas in the galaxy at a given time: in these panels, the brightest areas show where gas is most densely concentrated. In the middle row, gas shoots out of the galaxy in the bright areas and plummets toward the center of galaxy in the darkest areas. The bottom row shows temperature: the brighter the area, the hotter the gas. Models like these help astrophysicists understand the chaotic, explosive, ever-changing lives of evolving galaxies.”

Read more about the event in Science in Society.
Check out all the winning images.
View Hafen’s MSI Workshop slides.