NAS visualization specialists create stunning, detailed images and visualizations to help researchers gain insights into their complex scientific data.
You can download these images for use in your NASA-related news items, blog posts, interviews, and feature articles—or just for fun.
This short video explains how astrophysicists at the Flatiron Institute are using NASA high-performance computing to run 3D radiation hydrodynamic simulations of supernova shockwaves. The convective structures on shock breakout signatures help scientists interpret future observations of supernovas.
Yan-Fei Jiang, Flatiron Institute; Nina McCurdy, NASA/Ames
This short video explains how researchers are using NASA high-performance computing to simulate the complex aerodynamics environment produced when a supersonic parachute inflates during planetary descent. The simulation helps understand and mitigate the risks to a parachute system and its payload for descent and landing. The simulation of the third ASPIRE flight test was compared with the flight test data to validate the accuracy of their results.
Francois Cadieux, Michael Barad, NASA/Ames
Visualization showing density evolution of an accretion disk around a supermassive black hole. The density isosurface (bottom left) corresponds with the colors, which show the value of radiation energy density as indicated by the color bar. The gas heats up when it flows towards the black hole, photons are emitted from the disk surface, and magnetic fields are amplified. Toward the end of the video, most of the gas has accreted and the remaining gas flows towards the black hole along the filamentary magnetic fields instead of around the disk.
Yan-Fei Jiang, Flatiron Institute; Patrick Moran, NASA/Ames
A 60-second timelapse animation of detected bolides (exploding meteors) over four years of data collection by the The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite’s (GOES) Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument. Each explosion represents one bolide. The size of the explosion relates to the brightness, and accordingly, the energy of the impact.
Nina McCurdy, NASA/Ames; Jeffrey Smith, SETI Institute
A flow simulation around a preliminary design of the X-59 low boom flight demonstrator at a cruise Mach number of 1.4 and a 2.05° angle of attack. The simulation was computed with the Cart3D code and is displayed using a computational schlieren technique that ray-traces through the domain to mimic shadowgraph images captured in a wind tunnel. This technique helps engineers to understand the 3D shock structure around the vehicle. For this low-boom vehicle, note the relatively weak shock structure below the vehicle and the strong influence of the inlet and nozzle exhaust. Michael J. Aftosmis, Marian Nemec, NASA/Ames
Cross-section of the Sun during and after flare heating. The waves that initially travel upward pass through the thinner layers of the Sun’s atmosphere where the sound speed is much greater, so the wavefront moves more quickly than the downward wavefront. Red corresponds to upward motion of the plasma, blue to downward motion, and intensity to how quickly the plasma is moving.
John Stefan, New Jersey Institute of Technology; Nina McCurdy, NASA/Ames
Visualization showing a cutaway view from a time-dependent animation showing the interior flow physics of the rotor wake for a V22 Osprey rotor during hover. The vortical structures are rendered using iso-surfaces of the q-criterion colored by vorticity magnitude (|Ω|), where blue represents high vorticity and white represents low vorticity. Unprecedented detail revealed a new flow phenomenon, small spinning structures called turbulent worms.
Neal M. Chaderjian, Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Visualization of wind tunnel model air particles seeded at the nozzle entrances. The visualization is based on a FUN3D calculation of an eight-nozzle supersonic retropropulsion (SRP) model at an angle of attack of 10 degrees, a tunnel Mach number of 2.4, and a total thrust coefficient of 2.5.
Bil Kleb, NASA/Langley; Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Simulation of launch ignition for NASA’s next-generation Space Launch System at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B, generated using the NAS-developed Launch Ascent and Vehicle Aerodynamics flow solver. Particle colors indicate temperature of exhaust, where white is hotter and black is cooler. The image plane slices through the centerline of one of the two solid rocket boosters. Michael Barad, Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Detail of surface ocean current speed in the Gulf of Mexico and surrounding regions from a global 1-kilometer simulation produced with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm). This visualization shows the tremendous complexity and variability of the ocean, including surface signatures of geostrophic eddies, submesoscale eddies, and internal tides. Chris Henze, NASA/Ames
View of the gas in and around an evolving galaxy. The purple-to-yellow colors indicate the gas density, with the purple tracing lower density gas and the yellow tracing higher density gas. The blue-to-red colors indicate gas temperature, the redder colors tracing the hotter gas. The colder, denser gas flows in along cosmic filaments to form the galaxy, where stars (not shown) are forming. These stars then blow up as supernovae that drive galactic superwinds from the galaxy; these are seen predominantly as the hotter diffuse gas blowing out of the galaxy. As there is more star formation and thus more supernovae at early times, these winds become calmer as the galaxy evolves. Molly S. Peeples, Space Telescope Science Institute/Johns Hopkins University; Chris Henze, Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Movie showing—for the first time—blade vortex interaction (BVI) causing dynamic stall on a Blackhawk helicopter rotor in forward flight. The vortex wake is visualized using isosurfaces of the Q-criterion, where red is high vorticity and blue is low vorticity. A novel visualization technique utilizes transparency to visualize the underlying separated flow near the rotor blade surface. Two dynamic stall events occur near azimuth angles of 220° to 270° and 330° to 360°. Neal Chaderjian, Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Top: A Blackhawk helicopter in forward flight. Bottom: CFD simulation of the Black Hawk rotor undergoing dynamic stall. The rotor wake and blade-tip vortices are visualized with isosurfaces of the Q-criterion, colored by vorticity magnitude (red is high, blue is low). This is the first time blade-vortex interaction has been shown to cause dynamic stall (bright red area in lower part of image). Neal M. Chaderjian, NASA/Ames
Visualization of NASA’s side-by-side rotorcraft concept for UAM in forward flight. This back view shows the complex 3D vortex wake from the intermeshing rotors. Note the rolling of the vortex wake at far right and left. Interactions of the vortices in the overlapping region (center) produce a roll-up of the wake. Vortices are colored by vorticity magnitude (magenta is high; blue is low). Pressure is shown below and in front of the vehicle. These complex flow interactions and details can only be captured with high-fidelity CFD and high-order accurate schemes. Patricia Ventura Diaz, NASA/Ames
Computational fluid dynamics simulation of a side-by-side urban air taxi concept. This visualization shows the front view of the vehicle. The video illustrates the vortex wake represented with the Q-criterion vorticity isosurfaces, colored by pressure coefficient (red is high, blue is low). Note the vortex rolling at the outer part of the vehicle (furthest from the fuselage) and complex vortex structures at the inner part (by the fuselage) where the rotors overlap. The two overlapping, intermeshing rotors increase the efficiency of the vehicle in forward flight. Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Simulation of a hypothetical asteroid entry that reaches the ground, showing contours of temperature in the symmetry plane. The inset shows the peak overpressures experienced on the ground plane. The entry trajectory is inclined 45° and the asteroid impacts the ground with 100 megatons of kinetic energy. For this simulation, the asteroid composition is assumed to be normal chondrite with a high internal strength, which is more likely to reach the ground than burst in the air. Michael Aftosmis, NASA/Ames
Image from a simulation of launch ignition for NASA’s next-generation Space Launch System. Colors indicate temperature, where white is hotter and brown is cooler. The plume is contoured based on the air-mass fraction (that is, the fraction by mass of air vs. gas plume species). Small green people are shown for scale. Michael Barad, Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Visualization of the transonic truss-braced wing vehicle flow field at cruise condition. The surface contour illustrates the pressure distribution on the body (red is high, blue is low), while the contour lines illustrate the vorticity magnitude at various streamwise stations (red is high, purple is low), showing the wake of the aircraft. Daniel Maldonado, Jared Duensing, NASA/Ames
Snapshot of the Orion Pad Abort 1 flight test simulation showing the detailed turbulent exhaust plume physics captured. Density (red is low, blue is high) is shown on the vehicle surface and a plane cutting through two abort motor nozzles. The hot, high-velocity exhaust gas has a lower density than air when it exits the nozzle. Its difference in speed with respect to the slower moving air around the vehicle creates turbulent eddies that result in pressure fluctuations on the vehicle surface. Michael Barad, Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
A flow visualization is shown for a sample computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution from the 3rd AIAA Sonic Boom Prediction Workshop version of the X-59 aircraft concept. The surface is colored by the coefficient of pressure, and the symmetry plane is colored by the Mach number. This solution was produced using the Launch Ascent and Vehicle Aerodynamics (LAVA) curvilinear flow solver. Visualizations like this are used to help determine which features of the aircraft are contributing to the pressure signature below the aircraft. James C. Jensen, NASA/Ames
Visualization of the simulated flow field around a large airliner. Note the complex, vortical, unsteady flow features generated by the wing high-lift devices (leading edge slats and trailing edge flaps) and aircraft landing gear. Benedikt Koenig, Dassault Systemes; Patrick Moran, NASA/Ames
Visualization of the flow of NASA’s six-passenger quadcopter concept for urban air mobility (UAM), in edgewise flight (viewed from below). The vortex wake is visualized by using Q-criterion isosurfaces colored by vorticity magnitude, where magenta is high vorticity and blue is low vorticity. This visualization reveals the complexity of the flow for a multi-rotor configuration, where many rotors interact with each other and the different components. Patricia Ventura Diaz, NASA/Ames
Video from a simulation showing microscale ablation of a heat shield due to oxidation. Particles enter from the top and react as they collide with the microstructure of the material. As the simulation progresses, the surface material is eaten away, allowing the particles to diffuse further downward. The material represented here is the carbon fiber precursor to the Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA), invented by NASA for use in spacecraft heat shields. Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Passive particles tracing the complex flow structures generated by four sets of blades spinning at 133.1, 134.9, 163.2, and 164.6 Hz. This 5% tip chord simulation of a Straight Up Imaging (SUI) quadcopter in forward flight was conducted using NASA’s high-performance LAVA Lattice-Boltzmann flow solver. Francois Cadieux, Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Snapshot of the Orion Pad Abort 1 flight test simulation at 1.25 seconds after ignition. Particles are seeded at the Launch Abort System’s motor nozzles, and move with the unsteady turbulent plumes. The particles are colored by the exhaust gas velocity magnitude, where white and orange indicate regions of high-speed flow and strong vibrations; darker colors indicate slower flow. Francois Cadieux, Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Isometric view of the Artemis II vehicle, simulating the effect of a failure in a core stage engine with the boosters four feet downstream from their original, attached position. Slices of the flow are taken on vehicle centerline and through the left booster’s separation motors. The vehicle surface is colored by pressure contours, where blue is low and red is high. The green and orange colors represent low and high Mach numbers, respectively. Stuart Rogers, Henry Lee, NASA/Ames
Side view of the Orion Pad Abort 1 flight test simulation, corresponding to 1.25 seconds. Particles are seeded at the abort motor nozzles, and move with the unsteady turbulent exhaust plumes. The particles are colored by the exhaust gas velocity magnitude, where white and orange indicate regions of high speed flow and strong vibrations, whereas darker colors indicate slower flow. Francois Cadieux, Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
View of a coronal structure from the top of the computational domain, revealed by tracking particle motions. Simulation results show a self-formed magnetic structure that originates from a kilogauss magnetic field patch in the photosphere and extends through the chromosphere and transition zone into the corona. Red shows regions where the solar plasma is heated above 1 million degrees Kelvin. Visualizations are performed by advecting particles seeded at 1,400 miles above the solar surface. Irina Kitiashvili, Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Evolution of the solar plasma temperature about 6,200 miles above the Sun’s surface. The dark structure in the middle is an evolving funnel-like magnetic domain. Brightening inside the structure corresponds to impulsive heating events caused by dissipation of small-scale electric currents. Disturbances moving across the domain are shocks, which also contribute to coronal heating. Irina Kitiashvili, Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Visualization showing the simulated diurnal cycle of water ice clouds and the environment over the Tharsis Montes volcanoes, during the northern summer on Mars. The simulation was run on NASA’s Pleiades supercomputer. Alex Kling, David Ellsworth, NASA/Ames
A flow simulation around a preliminary design of the X-59 low boom flight demonstrator at a cruise Mach number of 1.4 and a 2.05° angle of attack. The simulation was computed with the Cart3D code and is displayed using a computational schlieren technique that ray-traces through the domain to mimic shadowgraph images captured in a wind tunnel. This technique helps engineers to understand the 3D shock structure around the vehicle. For this low-boom vehicle, note the relatively weak shock structure below the vehicle and the strong influence of the inlet and nozzle exhaust. Michael J. Aftosmis, Marian Nemec, NASA/Ames
Side view of the Orion Pad Abort 1 flight test simulation where the camera follows the vehicle as it moves, showcasing the detailed turbulent exhaust plume physics captured. Density (red is low, blue is high) is shown on the vehicle surface and a plane cutting through two abort motor nozzles. The hot, high-velocity exhaust gas has a lower density than air when it exits the nozzles. Its difference in speed with respect to the air creates turbulent eddies and pressure fluctuations on the vehicle surface. Francois Cadieux, Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Snapshot of a wall-modeled large eddy simulation (WMLES) of the “junction flow” observed in a conventional wing-body juncture (where the wing meets an aircraft’s fuselage). The image shows passive particle tracers colored by streamwise velocity, where the darker color indicates lower velocity and lighter indicates higher (with yellow indicating very high). Gerrit-Daniel Stich, Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Rendering of the Ascent Abort Test 2 (AA-2) CFD simulation’s prediction for overall sound pressure level (OASPL) using 1.2 seconds’ worth of volumetric data (nearly 5,000 snapshots). The vehicle is shown in gray, and the cut plane through the nozzles depicts areas of pressure fluctuations that can cause vibrations on Orion’s LAS structure (white is high, dark blue is low). The white line upstream of the nozzles is where the bow shock oscillates due to the presence of the unsteady abort motor plumes, and the white curves downstream of the nozzle are due to shock-plume interactions. Francois Cadieux, Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Visualization of a wall-modeled large eddy simulation (WMLES) showing the “junction flow” observed in a conventional wing-body juncture (where the wing meets an aircraft’s fuselage). The isosurfaces shown represent Q-criterion colored by absolute vorticity, where the red end is the highest vorticity, and the blue end is lower vorticity; and passive tracer particle trajectories are colored by streamwise velocity, where the darker color indicates lower velocity and lighter indicates higher (with yellow indicating very high). Aditya Ghate, Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
This image shows the internal dynamics, from 10,000 to 45,000 kilometers (km) beneath the surface of a star of 1.47 solar mass and a one-day period of rotation. The horizontal interface layer (the so-called tachocline) is located at a depth of 30,000 km and represents the transition from the inner radiative zone to the outer convection zone. The top portion shows temperature fluctuations, where darker colors corresponds to lower temperatures and brighter colors to higher temperatures. The bottom portion shows the radial velocity of stellar convection, where blue colors represent downflows and red are upflows. Irina Kitiashivili, Alan Wray, NASA/Ames
Multirotor Test Bed system modeled showing a center cut of a single rotor in hover. The particle traces colored by the vorticity magnitude. Jasim Ahmad, Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Snapshot of wall-modeled large eddy simulation (WMLES) of a complex multi-stream nozzle. The image shows the isocontour of the q-criterion colored by vorticity magnitude, where darker colors indicate higher vorticity and lighter colors indicate low vorticity. Also displayed in the picture is the streamwise velocity on the first point off the surface colored in blue/green. Gerrit-Daniel Stich, Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Multirotor Test Bed system modeled showing a center cut of a single rotor in hover. The particle traces colored by the vorticity magnitude. Jasim Ahmad, Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Scale-resolving simulation of supersonic Ascent Abort Test 2 (AA-2) during its initial firing sequence when the vehicle is moving at nearly 1.2 times the speed of sound. The video displays pressure on the Orion launch abort vehicle surface and on a slice through the nozzles. Areas of relatively constant high pressure (white) delineate areas where attached shocks are present due to the vehicle’s many changes in cross-sectional area. Francois Cadieux, Cetin Kiris, NASA/Ames
Exhaust gas flow visualization at the Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), showing the Space Launch System (SLS) plume during the launch sequence. Plume contours are colored by temperature; white is high, and red is lower. The purple outlines highlight the geometric complexity included in the launch pad simulation. Michael Barad, Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
The supermassive black hole that generated ASASSN-19bt, a tidal disruption event that was found in the TESS data, has around six million times the Sun’s mass and sits at the center of a galaxy located in the constellation Volans, about 375 million light-years away. As shown in this animation, the destroyed star may have been similar in size to our Sun. As it approached the black hole, the star broke apart into a stream of gas. The stream’s tail escaped the system, while the rest of it swung back around, creating a debris disk. NASA/Goddard
In this video, the top portion shows density fluctuations in the subsurface layers (10-45 thousand kilometers deep) of a star with 1.47 solar mass and a 1day rotational period. The bottom portion shows the time derivative of gas pressure. Brighter colors indicate density and pressure enhancements. Propagating circular-shape structures are wavefronts of acoustic waves excited by turbulent downflows. Irina Kitiashivili, Alan Wray, NASA/Ames
Surface current speeds from a 1/16-degree solution simulation. The currents and associated 3D full ocean state can be used to drive applications such as: improved melt rate estimates for the Antarctic ice sheet; enhanced estimates of ocean carbon dioxide uptake due to physical and biological processes; and quantifying uncertainty in projections of surface pollutant transports. Black depicts currents moving more slowly, while orange/yellow highlights show the fastest currents. The brightest colors (fastest currents) are moving close to 3 meters/sec. Chris Henze, NASA/Ames
Snapshot of a magnetic loop emerging through the solar surface. Individual magnetic field lines are color-coded by the magnitude of the magnetic field. Convective up flows and down flows advect the magnetic field into these loop-like structures. Small convective motions near the surface shred the field into tiny filaments, while large convective motions deep under the surface produce the overall loop configuration. As the loop emerges through the solar surface, its vertical legs remain and produce the dark sunspot. Patrick Moran, NASA/Ames
Visualization showing the build-up of a rotating disk around a white dwarf star (black center) as it is being fed by a stream from an orbiting companion star. Both stars (not shown) are orbiting around their common center of mass, which is close to the white dwarf star. Colors indicate the brightness of the light emitted by the disk, with red and pink being brightest and green being faintest. As the disk builds and spreads outward, the outermost parts start to tilt and precess (wobble). Patrick Moran, NASA/Ames; Yan-Fei Jiang, University of California at Santa Barbara
Two black holes spiral together and merge in this simulation run on NASA’s Pleiades supercomputer. Yellow structures near the black holes illustrate the strong curvature of spacetime; orange ripples represent the spacetime distortions that ultimately become gravitational waves. The simulation approximates the powerful cosmic event that generated the first gravitational waves ever detected, by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in 2015. Bernard J. Kelly, NASA/Goddard; Chris Henze, Tim Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
Simulation of a 120-meter asteroid entering the atmosphere at 20 kilometers per second (km/s) and impacting the ground, releasing the energy equivalent of about 100 megatons of TNT. After the impact occurs, the blast wave propagates over the region (colored by contours of local Mach number). The recoil up the entry corridor and blast from the ground impact are clearly visible. Michael Aftosmis, Marian Nemec, NASA/Ames
Drug Repurposing for COVID 19 with 3D-Aware Machine Learning: The Conformer-Rotamer Ensemble Sampling Tool (CREST) software was used in this simulation of the latanoprost molecule. A quantum chemistry calculation is performed at each step, yielding the energy, charge density, and atomic forces. The calculation is used as input to a meta-dynamics step, which accelerates the atoms in the direction of the forces while biasing them towards new conformations. Warm colors signify charge concentration and cool colors signify charge depletion. Chris Henze, NASA/Ames
At a depth of 850 meters near the coast of Antarctica (140 - 130° W longitude), previously undiscovered eddies become apparent in a new video of a global ocean simulation run on the Pleiades supercomputer. Relative salinity is shown in grayscale, with the darker areas showing slightly lower salt concentrations. At bottom, the continental shelf is shown in red, and the ice-covered land is shown in white. The video is running at 6 days of simulation time per second. Bron Nelson, David Ellsworth, NASA/Ames
This short video loop shows the evolution of the solar magnetic field in a high-resolution model over the course of two days. The parallel bands represent the toroidal magnetic field, with opposite polarities depicted in red and blue. The strongest toroidal fields can be seen congregating on the surface near the equator, which is where scientists most often observe the emergence of sunspots on the Sun. Timothy Sandstrom, NASA/Ames
