During a recent test, a team of astronomers in Chicago streamed a computer simulation to a team in Portland.  This same practice would work for live conferences, astronomers note, as the computing power necessary to run such large, complex simulations is high.  The simulation was streamed to Chicago at 10 gigabits per second, Space.com learned during a recent interview.

Being able to collaborate with another research team in a different part of the country will likely be beneficial as researchers look for new ways to share content.

A new simulation is now being used to help detect the density of intergalactic gas.

"We can measure the density of intergalactic gas by seeing how strongly it absorbs the light from distance objects, particularly quasars," said Rick Wagner, University of California, San Diego astrophysicist.  Measuring the "peaks" of density helps provide accurate "measuring these peaks accurately is one of the best tools for nailing down the fundamental properties of the universe."

Supercomputing clusters are very expensive to purchase and maintain, with the logistics and cost of frequently sending astronomers to other locations causing additional financial burden.  The use of these supercomputers to stream photo and video feeds among researchers can be used for a wide variety of space-related projects.