Einstein@Home

Einstein@Home is one of the largest distributed volunteer computing projects in the world with almost half a million participants. Their computers provide a computing power of roughly 10.9 PetaFlop/s. If listed on the Top-500, Einstein@Home would be one of the 50 most powerful computers in the world.

The project

Einstein@Home uses idle computing time donated by volunteers all around the world to search for weak astrophysical signals from spinning neutron stars (also called pulsars). The project analyzes data from the LIGO gravitational-wave detectors, the Arecibo and Parkes radio telescopes, and the Fermi gamma-ray satellite.

Einstein@Home is a World Year of Physics 2005 and an International Year of Astronomy 2009 project supported by the American Physical Society (APS) and by a number of international organizations.

Discoveries and research

Einstein@Home volunteers have already discovered more than 90 new neutron stars, and we hope to find many more in the future. Our long-term goal is to make the first direct detection of gravitational-wave emission from spinning neutron stars. Gravitational waves were predicted by Albert Einstein more than a century ago. In September 2015 gravitational waves from colliding black holes were detected for the first time ever, ushering in a new era in astronomy.

News

Einstein@Home reveals true identity of mysterious gamma-ray source

Distributed volunteer computing project finds neutron star rotating 377 times a second in an exotic binary system using data from NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope more

A milestone in the race to find the first continuous gravitational wave signal

AEI scientists achieve breakthrough sensitivity more

Super heavyweight and flyweight in a cosmic dance

Volunteer distributed computing project Einstein@Home discovers neutron star in unusual binary system more

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