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{{about|the consortium in computational cosmology|the European Gravitational Observatory|Virgo Collaboration}}
The '''Virgo [[Consortium]]''' was founded in 1994 for '''''[[N-body simulation|Cosmological Supercomputer Simulations]]''''' in response to the UK's [[High-performance computing|High Performance Computing Initiative]]. Virgo developed rapidly into an international collaboration between a dozen scientists in the UK, Germany, [[Netherlands]], Canada, United States and Japan.

==Nodes==

The largest [[Node (networking)|nodes]] are the [http://www.icc.dur.ac.uk/ Institute for Computational Cosmology] in the UK and the [http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/ Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics] in Germany. Other nodes exist in the UK, Netherlands, Canada, USA and Japan.

==Science Goals==

The science goals are to carry out [[state-of-the-art]] cosmological simulations with  research areas in:

* The large-scale distribution of [[dark matter]]
* The formation of [[dark matter halo]]s
* The [[Galaxy formation and evolution|formation and evolution of galaxies and clusters]]
* The physics of the [[Intergalactic space|intergalactic medium]]
* The properties of the [[Intracluster medium|intracluster gas]]

==Projects==

* The [[Millennium Run|Millennium Simulation]]
* Galaxy Simulations
* [[Timeline of the Big Bang|First Objects]]
* Dark Matter Halos
* Intergalactic Medium
* Semi-Analytical Galaxy Formation
* Hubble Volume
* Mock Catalogues
* GIF Project<ref>[http://www.virgo.dur.ac.uk/new/index.php?subject=projects Projects]</ref>
* Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE)<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://icc.dur.ac.uk/Eagle/ |title = The EAGLE Project}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|arxiv=1407.7040 |title=The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments |journal=  Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society|volume=  446|issue=  446|pages=  521|date=2 October 2014 |last1=  Schaye|first1=  Joop|last2=  Crain|first2=  Robert A|last3=  Bower|first3=  Richard G|last4=  Furlong|first4=  Michelle|last5=  Schaller|first5=  Matthieu|last6=  Theuns|first6=  Tom|author7=  Claudio Dalla Vecchia|last8=  Frenk|first8=  Carlos S|last9=  McCarthy|first9=  I. G|last10=  Helly|first10=  John C|last11=  Jenkins|first11=  Adrian|last12=  Rosas-Guevara|first12=  Y. M|last13=  White|first13=  Simon D. M|last14=  Baes|first14=  Maarten|last15=  Booth|first15=  C. M|last16=  Camps|first16=  Peter|last17=  Navarro|first17=  Julio F|last18=  Qu|first18=  Yan|last19=  Rahmati|first19=  Alireza|last20=  Sawala|first20=  Till|last21=  Thomas|first21=  Peter A|last22=  Trayford|first22=  James|doi=  10.1093/mnras/stu2058|doi-access=free |bibcode=  2015MNRAS.446..521S|s2cid=17077568 }}</ref>

===The Millennium Simulation===

This N-body simulation used more than 10 billion particles to trace the evolution of the matter distribution in a cubic region of the [[Universe]] over 2 billion [[light-years]] on a side. The first results that were published in 2005 in an issue of [[Nature (journal)|Nature]], shows how comparing such simulated data to large observational surveys can improve the understanding of the physical processes underlying the buildup of real galaxies and black holes.

==Member Countries & Institutes==

As of December 2023, the members are:<ref>{{cite web |title=About |url=https://virgo.dur.ac.uk/Page_About/About/index.html |website=virgo.dur.ac.uk |access-date=10 December 2023}}</ref>
* {{CAN}}: [[University of Victoria]]
* {{CHL}}: [[University of La Serena]]
* {{CHN}}: [[National Astronomical Observatories of China]]
* {{FIN}}: [[University of Helsinki]]
* {{GER}}: [[Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics]] and [[Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam]]
* {{GBR}}: [[Durham University]], [[Liverpool John Moores University]], [[University of Manchester]], [[University of Nottingham]] and [[University of Sussex]]
* {{USA}}: [[Johns Hopkins University]] and [[UC Riverside]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.virgo.dur.ac.uk Official Site]

[[Category:Physical cosmology]]
[[Category:Technology consortia]]