Planets are formed in “protoplanetary disks” composed of gas and dust orbiting a central star. Once a planet has formed in the disk, the radius of its orbit can change due to gravitational forces between the planet and material in the disk. In this way, planets can migrate from their original location, a phenomenon that… Read more »
Tag: simulations
Globular cluster simulator: Can your PC handle it?
![An image of hundreds of thousands of small points representing stars with streaks showing their motion. The points and trails are the most dense in the center, and decrease in density outward.](https://blogs.iu.edu/sciu/files/2017/03/globsim-1hgf10c.png)
If you are a video game enthusiast, you might be familiar with the importance of the graphics processing unit, or the GPU. The GPU determines whether you can play a game with all the fancy visual effects turned on, how high you can set the screen resolution, and how many frames (the images you see… Read more »