QUICK
FACTS
The Carnegie Institution of Washington uses Visual Numerics’
PV-WAVE to analyze dust particles trapped inside meteorites, which
helps them study the star formation process. Because of its excellent
analysis and visualization capabilities, PV-WAVE is used for several
different projects at the Institution.
THE PROBLEM
While much of the scientific research leading mankind into the next
millennium is conducted by industry giants, such as Lockheed Martin
Corp., and government agencies, such as the Department of Defense,
universities and private non-profit organizations are also playing
a key role. One such organization is the Carnegie Institution of
Washington.
Headquartered in the District of Columbia, the Carnegie Institution
is engaged in basic research and advanced education in biology,
astronomy and the earth sciences. It was founded by Andrew Carnegie
in 1902 and incorporated by an Act of Congress in 1904. Carnegie,
who provided an initial endowment of $10 million and later gave
additional millions, conceived the Institution's purpose "to
encourage, in the broadest and most liberal manner, investigation,
research and discovery, and the application of knowledge to the
improvement of mankind."
From its earliest years, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering
research organization, devoted to fields of inquiry that its trustees
and staff consider among the most significant in the development
of science. Its funds are used primarily to support investigations
at its own research departments. Recognizing that fundamental research
is closely related to the development of outstanding young scholars,
the Institution conducts a strong program of advanced education
at the predoctoral and postdoctoral levels. The Institution also
conducts programs for elementary school teachers and children in
Washington, D.C.
Of the five research groups, the work of the Department of Terrestrial
Magnetism (DTM) is perhaps the most tangible to the millions of
people around the world fascinated by the popular Star Wars and
Star Trek movies. DTM's scientists bring the perspectives of several
disciplines to
broad questions about nature. The Department's name comes from its
original role to chart the Earth's magnetic field. This goal was
largely accomplished by 1929. Since then, DTM has evolved to reflect
the growing multidisciplinary nature of the earth, planetary and
astronomical sciences. Today, the department's goal remains the
same as originally conceived -- to conduct scientific research that
aids in the understanding of the physical Earth and its role in
the Universe.
Larry R. Nittler, a postdoctoral research fellow in DTM, has worked
for the Institution for more than two years. He conducts basic scientific
research in astrophysics and cosmochemistry. "I am primarily
interested in presolar grains in meteorites and in the development
of new techniques for isotopic analysis and mapping of small samples,"
he said.
Meteorites are particularly valuable geologic specimens because
they represent samples of planetary bodies (mostly asteroids) that
have not yet been obtained through either manned or unmanned space
missions. Because asteroids have been much less affected than the
Earth and other large planets by geological processes, such as melting,
meteorites house a record of conditions about the very early solar
system. Thus, as a scientific resource, meteorites provide mankind
with some of the first glimpses of the diverse array of planetary
material scattered throughout the inner solar system.
The oldest meteorite specimens are remnants of the very first geologic
processes to occur in the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago.
(The origin of the solar system should not be confused with the
origin of the universe, commonly known as the Big Bang, which occurred
at least 9 billion years ago and possibly as long ago as 20 billion
years.) The solar system formed when a cloud of interstellar dust
and gas collapsed under its own weight. Because the interstellar
cloud had been slowly spinning, the result was a nearly flat rotating
disk, which today is referred to as the solar nebula. Much of the
dust and gas in the disk moved to the center of the nebula where
it fed a growing protostar that eventually became the Sun.
As the solar system formed, most of the pre-existing dust in the
Sun's parent interstellar cloud was heated and vaporized. It is
now known, however, that some of the original dust particles, known
as presolar grains, survived solar system formation protected inside
asteroids. By breaking up certain meteorites and dissolving them
away in strong acids, scientists are able to isolate these presolar
dust grains.
Presolar grains are literally bits of stars that can be studied
in the laboratory. They are condensed from the gas phase in the
cooling outflows of stars (such as red giants and supernova explosions)
billions of years ago, before the formation of the solar system.
Because the atoms in these grains are the original atoms from the
parent stars, scientists can study this stardust to probe processes
that occur inside stars and in the interstellar medium. Thus, the
discovery of presolar grains has essentially opened up a new branch
of astronomy, where laboratory microanalytical instrumentation takes
the place of telescopes.
THE SOLUTION
To perform microanalysis on presolar grains, Nittler uses a process
called secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), a technique for precisely
determining the chemical and isotopic composition of materials on
a very small scale. For SIMS to yield the desired results, however,
Nittler needed to add an image processing component to his laboratory
toolbox. To meet this requirement, he selected PV-WAVE from Visual
Numerics.
PV-WAVE is an array-oriented fourth-generation programming language
(4GL) used by engineers, scientists, researchers, business analysts,
and software developers to easily build and deploy visual data analysis
(VDA) applications. These applications let users visualize and manipulate
complex or extremely large technical datasets to detect and display
patterns, trends, anomalies, and other vital information. The software
includes hundreds of mathematical and statistical routines from
the IMSL Numerical Libraries, as well as image processing, signal
processing, mapping, and general data manipulation features.
"I am using PV-WAVE for a number of different projects at
the Institution, all related to SIMS," Nittler said. "I
have developed a new system to automatically measure small particles
using our SIMS instrument. In this system, which I run on a Sun
Microsystems workstation, images of dispersed particles are produced
by the instrument and PV-WAVE is used to automatically locate the
coordinates of the grains in the images. Once the grains are found,
they are analyzed for their isotopic and chemical composition. This
system is allowing us to efficiently locate rare types of presolar
grains, which are of great scientific interest."
In another project, Nittler uses SIMS to explore isotopic variations
on very small scales in natural samples, including dust particles
from comets collected in the upper atmosphere and fossils. "For
this project," Nittler explained, "high spatial-resolution
images in different isotopes are acquired and PV-WAVE is used to
process the images. In particular, I have developed a PV-WAVE application
that allows the user to interactively view the ion images and quantitatively
determine isotopic ratios in different regions of the imaged samples."
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Nittler said he selected PV-WAVE for his image processing needs
because he had "considerable experience" with the software
during graduate school. In addition, he likes the software's image
and data processing routines, ease-of-programming, and interprocess
communication capabilities. Nittler added that he's been "extremely
happy" with Visual Numerics' service and technical support,
and that PV-WAVE's printed manuals and online help are excellent.
WORLD CLASS PRODUCTS, SERVICES,
AND SUPPORT
Visual Numerics has provided technical software
solutions for numerical analysis and visualization for over 30 years.
The company's software products help users understand complex data
from a variety of sources and build business-critical applications.
Visual Numerics offers two product lines: the IMSL® Numerical
Libraries for powerful mathematical and statistical analysis and
the PV-WAVE® visual data analysis development environment. Visual
Numerics also offers customized consulting services for applications
that involve mathematical, statistical, or visual data analysis
to meet today’s business analytical needs.
