Astrophysics

Coding a Starkiller

The spectacular Supernova 1987A, whose light reached Earth on Feb. 23 of the year it’s named for, captured the public’s… Read More

March 15, 2017

Infant cosmos

About 13.5 billion years ago, the Big Bang filled the universe with ions – atoms bearing electric charges. Intense heat… Read More

May 18, 2016

Tackling a trillion

To study the development of the universe or plasma physics, scientists run into what could be the biggest big-data problem:… Read More

November 16, 2015

Supernova shocks

It had to be a programming bug, or so researchers thought in 2002, when their computational models found an instability… Read More

May 6, 2014

Supernova revelations

Supernovae used to be simple. Just ask Stan Woosley. Almost 50 years ago, when the renowned astrophysicist began contemplating the… Read More

October 31, 2013

Cosmic performance

It takes big computers to recreate the biggest thing there is – the observable universe – with enough details to help cosmologists… Read More

November 8, 2012

Galaxy and gluons

Part of the Science at the Exascale series. Alex Szalay looks to the skies to study the universe’s largest structures. Frank Würthwein… Read More

March 1, 2011

Physics to the max

Part of the Science at the Exascale series. After years of planning, construction and delays, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)… Read More

February 25, 2011

Star material

How, from the primordial Big Bang eons ago, were the building blocks of life created? Over the past several centuries… Read More

July 2, 2007