Now you can see the most realistic and highest resolution 3D star formation simulation to date

Now you can see the most realistic and highest resolution 3D star formation simulation to date

Called STARFORGE (Star Formation in Gaseous Environments), this computational framework is the first to simulate a complete gas cloud, 100 times more massive than previously possible .

According to the authors, a team that includes astrophysicists from Northwestern University, we are looking at the first HD model to simulate an entire cloud of star formation . You can see it below.

STARFORGE

It is also the first simulation to simultaneously model the formation, evolution, and dynamics of stars while taking into account stellar feedback , including jets, radiation, wind, and nearby supernova activity.

STARFORGE has already helped the team discover a crucial new perspective on star formation . When the researchers ran the simulation without taking the jets into account, the stars ended up being too large – 10 times the mass of the sun. After adding jets to the simulation, the masses of the stars became much more realistic – less than half the mass of the sun.

As explained by Northwestern’s Michael Grudic , who co-directed the work:

People have been simulating star formation for a couple of decades, but STARFORGE is a quantum leap in technology. Other models have only been able to simulate a small part of the cloud where stars form, not the entire cloud in high resolution. Without seeing the big picture, we overlook many factors that could influence the star’s outcome.