3D Printing Meets Computational Astrophysics: Deciphering the Structure of Eta Carinae's Inner Colliding Winds

Abstract

We present the first 3D prints of output from a supercomputer simulation of a complex astrophysical system, the colliding stellar winds in the massive (>120 M_Sun), highly eccentric (e ~ 0.9) binary star system Eta Carinae. We demonstrate the methodology used to incorporate 3D interactive figures into a PDF journal publication and the benefits of using 3D visualization and 3D printing as tools to analyze data from multidimensional numerical simulations. Using a consumer-grade 3D printer (MakerBot Replicator 2X), we successfully printed 3D smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of Eta Carinae's inner (r ~ 110 au) wind-wind collision interface at multiple orbital phases. The 3D prints and visualizations reveal important, previously unknown 'finger-like' structures at orbital phases shortly after periastron (phi ~ 1.045) that protrude radially outward from the spiral wind-wind collision region. We speculate that these fingers are related to instabilities (e.g. thin-shell, Rayleigh-Taylor) that arise at the interface between the radiatively-cooled layer of dense post-shock primary-star wind and the fast (3000 km/s), adiabatic post-shock companion-star wind. The success of our work and easy identification of previously unrecognized physical features highlight the important role 3D printing and interactive graphics can play in the visualization and understanding of complex 3D time-dependent numerical simulations of astrophysical phenomena.

15 pages, 14 figures, 12 interactive 3D figures, 1 embedded movie. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. To view 3D interactive figures and movie, use Adobe PDF viewer

References in corpus (11)

• SPLASH: An interactive visualisation tool for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations
• Modelling discontinuities and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in SPH
• The UV Scattering Halo of the Central Source Associated with Eta Carinae
• Incorporating interactive 3-dimensional graphics in astronomy research papers
• A multispectral view of the periodic events in eta Carinae
• Modeling the RXTE light curve of $\eta$ Carinae from a 3-D SPH simulation of its binary wind collision
• Multi-dimensional models of circumstellar shells around evolved massive stars
• The three-dimensional structure of the Eta Carinae Homunculus
• Galaxy emission line classification using 3D line ratio diagrams
• 3D radiative transfer simulations of Eta Carinae's inner colliding winds - I. Ionization structure of helium at apastron
• 3D Radiative Transfer in $\eta$ Carinae: Application of the SimpleX Algorithm to 3D SPH Simulations of Binary Colliding Winds

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Accretion at the periastron passage of Eta Carinae
• Smoke on the wind: dust nucleation in archetype colliding wind pinwheel WR104
• Holding the Cosmos in Your Hand: Developing 3D Modeling and Printing Pipelines for Communications and Research
• Touching the Stars: Using High-Resolution 3D Printing to Visualize Stellar Nurseries
• Making the Case for Visualization