An international team of astrophysicists has publicly released one of the largest datasets ever produced by cosmological simulations, providing researchers worldwide with unprecedented access to detailed virtual universes. The dataset comes from the FLAMINGO simulation project, a suite of large-scale simulations designed to model how matter evolves across the Universe. The data release, described in a paper submitted to Astronomy & Computing, makes more than 2.5 petabytes of simulation data freely accessible to the scientific community. The data are hosted at the DiRAC Memory Intensive Service operated by the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, UK, where the simulations were run.
Cosmological simulations are essential tools for designing and interpreting observations of the Universe. They allow scientists to predict how galaxies form, how galaxy clusters grow, and how dark and visible matter are distributed on the largest scales. By comparing these predictions with observations, researchers can test theories about the nature of dark matter, dark energy, and the processes that shape galaxies.
The FLAMINGO project was designed specifically to bridge the gap between detailed galaxy-formation simulations and the enormous cosmic volumes required for precision cosmology. Most simulations that model the physical processes involved in the formation of galaxies focus on small regions with high resolution. In contrast, FLAMINGO simulates volumes up to billions of light-years across, enabling scientists to study rare objects such as massive galaxy clusters and to model the large-scale structure of the Universe.
“These simulations allow us to follow the growth of cosmic structure across vast regions of space while still modelling the complex physics of galaxy formation,” says Professor Joop Schaye, of Leiden University, who leads the project. “By releasing the data publicly, we hope to enable scientists around the world to use FLAMINGO to test new ideas about how the Universe works.”
The FLAMINGO simulations were performed using the SWIFT cosmological simulation code on the COSMA8 supercomputer at the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, part of the DiRAC national high-performance computing facility in the UK. “Producing simulations of this size and complexity requires world-class computing infrastructure,” says team member Professor Carlos Frenk, of Durham University. “We are fortunate to have access to unique facilities such as DiRAC’s COSMA8. We therefore feel an obligation to make our data available to other astrophysicists across the world, the vast majority of whom do not have access to such powerful machines.”
Because the dataset is so large, the team developed a web-based data access system that allows researchers to explore and download only the subsets of data they need. “Datasets of this scale can be difficult to work with,” says Dr. John Helly, of Durham University, who led the development of the data access system. “Our data service allows researchers to access exactly the information they need, without having to download enormous files. We hope this will make the simulations accessible to a much wider community.”
Since the FLAMINGO simulations were first introduced, they have already been used in dozens of scientific studies covering topics such as galaxy formation, large-scale cosmic structure, and the interaction between galaxies and their surrounding gas. By releasing the full dataset, the team hopes to enable many more discoveries by researchers around the world. “Open access to large simulation datasets is a powerful way to accelerate scientific progress,” says team member Dr. Matthieu Schaller, of Leiden University. “By making these data publicly available, we aim to provide a resource that will support a wide range of astrophysical research.”
The FLAMINGO data release represents a major step toward open, collaborative cosmology, providing a valuable resource for scientists seeking to understand how the Universe evolved from its early beginnings to the complex cosmic web observed today.
Science contacts
Dr. John Helly
Durham University
j.c.helly@durham.ac.uk
Prof. Dr. Joop Schaye
Leiden University
schaye@strw.leidenuniv.nl
Prof. Dr. Carlos Frenk
Durham University
c.s.frenk@durham.ac.uk
Dr. Matthieu Schaller
Leiden University
schaller@strw.leidenuniv.nl
Images & video
Images, videos, and interactive material from the FLAMINGO simulations are available at: https://flamingo.strw.leidenuniv.nl
Further information
The full paper can be found here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.24324
FLAMINGO is a collaboration between scientists from the Virgo Consortium at Leiden University, Durham University, and Liverpool John Moores University.
The data release is described in the paper:
“The FLAMINGO simulations data release”, submitted to Astronomy & Computing.
The FLAMINGO project was introduced in the paper:
“The FLAMINGO project: cosmological hydrodynamical simulations for large-scale structure and galaxy cluster surveys”, Schaye et al., 2023, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 526, Issue 4, pp.4978-5020, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad2419
Data access
The FLAMINGO data and documentation are available online:
https://flamingo.strw.leidenuniv.nl/data.html
