Astronomers Explode a Virtual Star

Space.com ^ | 03/22/07 | Jeanna Bryner

[Sleeping Freeper]

For years astronomers have tried in vain to blow up an Earth-size star using strings of computer code. Finally, mission accomplished. And the resulting 3-D simulation has revealed the step-by-step process that fuels such an explosion.

Dubbed white dwarfs, stars about the size of Earth and weighing as much as the Sun end their lives with quite a show. When their core furnace begins to burn out, white dwarfs explode in so-called type-1a supernovas that astronomers say could be responsible for producing most of the iron in the universe.

Until now, a peek beneath the hood of such a white-dwarf explosion has been tricky.

Prior attempts to produce the simulated explosion required scientists manually tell the computer model to detonate the star, which meant the model was not quite right or it would have generated its own cataclysm. With more tweaking of models, University of Chicago scientists generated natural detonations of white dwarf stars in simplified, two-dimensional simulations.

“There were claims made that it wouldn’t work in 3-D,” said Don Lamb, director of the University of Chicago’s Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes. With some extreme computing, the team produced a 3-D detonation

[Sleeping Freeper]

All I can say is "Cool!"

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Think you'd like this

[Slings and Arrows]

MORAL: No matter what your job or educational accomplishments are, blowing stuff up is cool.

[Red Badger]

Coming soon to an IMax theater near you!...........

[ClearCase_guy]

“You don’t know the power of the Dark Side!”

“It’s only a model.”

[azhenfud]

Simply amazing!

It's astonishing to think man came from monkeys rubbing two sticks together causing fire to blowing up virtual stars.

Well, Rosie blowed herself up - but that star doesn't count.

[Red Badger]

[r9etb]

[Teacher317]

YOU, my friend, are ON today!

[NonValueAdded]

Unbeknownst to the researchers, somewhere in the universe a white dwarf exploded that day but it will take many years for the light of that explosion to reach Earth. Future scientists will calculate that a string of such explosions were not a coincidence but rather a tragic case of someone unwittingly sitting down before the cosmic control panel of the Rovian Clavier (Project X) in 2007.

[RunningWolf]

As it is a computer model, who really knows how accurate it is.

[BuffaloJack]

All things considered, it's probably as accurate as the Climate models. /s

[theDentist]

Looks like Hillary's pantsuit when she sits.

[Red Badger]

It reminds me of a Strawberry Shortcake Doll head........

[RunningWolf]

Yes, look at this, Dazzling new images reveal the 'impossible' on the Sun

How can the model be good when the scientists keep getting surprised by what they thought not possible?

[GAB-1955]

"Where's the kaboom? There ought to be an earth-shattering kaboom!"

[BlazingArizona]

Wait 'till al Qaeda gets hold of this code, and applies a sufficiently large amount of oil money to implementing it...

[RazzPutin]

GIGO.
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/00current.htm

[Dahoser]

For years astronomers have tried in vain to blow up an Earth-size star using strings of computer code.

Where've they been? I used to do it all the time with these strings of computer code:

[RunningWolf]

WOW!

Notice this in the article-

The NASA report, however, adds a comforting observation: “Fortunately, our sun is now a stable star that doesn't produce such powerful flares.”