3-D simulations and our supercomputers help answer origin of stars. This simulation captures a mix of radiation, magnetic fields, gravity and other physical phenomena.
What processes are involved in the formation of individual stars and stellar clusters in our own galaxy and other galaxies? Scientists are using ours most powerful supercomputer, Pleiades, to create unique star-formation simulations to answer this fundamental scientific question. Like something from a video game, the simulations zoom through the entire evolution of young star clusters. A giant cloud of interstellar gas and dust collapses under the forces of gravity. Inside the cloud, turbulent clumps of gas form and then collapse. The collapsed clumps form star clusters, and then the magnetized, swirling cores further evolve to form individual or small groups of stars.
Credits: NASA Ames/David Ellsworth, Tim Sandstrom