p2pnet.net News:- How’d you like to be part of a p2p experiment that uses your computer’s idle time to scan the skies for gravity wave-emitting compact stars?

Einstein@Home is a distributed computing project which relies on computer time donated by private users to search for signals emitted by the extremely dense, rapidly spinning neutron stars called pulsars. It uses the Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO) in the US and the GEO 600 gravitational wave observatory in Germany.

The stars are thought to be either quark or neutron stars, a subclass of which is already observed by conventional means as pulsars or X-ray emitting celestial objects, says the project site, going on:

“Scientists believe that some of these compact stars may not be perfectly spherical, and if so, they should emit characteristic gravitational waves, which LIGO and GEO 600 may begin to detect in coming months.”

Bruce Allen of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s (UWM) LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) group is leading the development of the Einstein@Home project.

“We are very close to deploying Einstein@home on a larger scale, but must complete final testing and tuning before ‘throwing open the doors’,” he says.

“Until this testing is complete, we are only accepting a limited number of users, who have indicated an interest in helping.”

To get into this, all you’ll have to do is install a small, screen saver program to your computer, says the web site.

“The screen saver will automatically download a tiny portion of the enormous data set that LIGO will collect. When your computer is otherwise idle, it will analyze the data and send it [sic] back to the LIGO scientists. The screen saver only runs when you’re not using the computer, or when you choose to manually turn the program on. Einstein@Home will not affect your computer’s performance.

“We are fortunate to have David Anderson, the pioneering developer of SETI@Home, helping us put the Einstein@Home project together. SETI@Home is a revolutionary distributed computing program that searches data from the Arecibo radio observatory for signs of extraterrestrial life. The total computing power donated to SETI@Home currently far exceeds the capabilities of any super computer yet built.”

Screensavers are being developed for Linux, Windows and Mac systems.

“Sign up to be notified when Einstein@Home is ready to go live!” - adds Einstein@Home.

“We can’t send you the screen saver right now - it will be available as part of the World Year of Physics celebration in early 2005. But if you get on the list, you’ll be among the first to know when everything is ready. We hope as many as a million people will join the effort, which means we need to compile a list of potential users as soon as possible.

“Einstein@Home is real - and important - science, at the grassroots level.”

Say no more : )

Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net

===================

See:-
private users - Einstein@Home
limited number - Join Einstein@Home, February 2, 2005

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 5th, 2005 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

HOME

Viewed 4352 times