Astronomers have developed a computer simulation to explore, in unprecedented detail, magnetism and turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM)鈥攖he vast ocean of gas and charged particles that lies between stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
Turbulence is a ubiquitous phenomenon, which all of us have witnessed. The swirly movement of mixing milk in a coffee cup is the same in principle as the chaotic flows in the oceans, solar wind, interstellar medium (ISM) and plasma between galaxies. The key distinction in astrophysical environments is the presence of magnetic fields, which fundamentally alter the nature of turbulent flows. Magnetised turbulence, which is hard to capture through mathematical equations and computer models, is also believed to be a decisive factor in the distribution of particles in the universe, the density variations in gasses, ISM, and star formation.
A composite image of the Phantom Galaxy and (inset) a high-resolution simulation of galactic turbulence with magnetic field lines in white. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team; Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt; Simulation: J. Beattie.
Using extremely high-resolution simulations of magnetized turbulence, CITA and Princeton Fellow James Beattie and his team show that the turbulent dynamics typical of the interstellar medium (ISM) significantly deviate from widely used classical models.聽The groundbreaking computer simulation the scholars have developed is described in , the model is the most powerful to date, requiring the computing capability of the SuperMUC-NG supercomputer at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre in Germany. It directly challenges our understanding of how magnetized turbulence operates in astrophysical environments.
James Beattie, the paper鈥檚 lead author, is hopeful the model will provide new insights into the ISM, the magnetism of the Milky Way Galaxy as whole, and astrophysical phenomenon such as star formation and the propagation of cosmic rays.
鈥淭his is the first time we can study these phenomena at this level of precision and at聽these different scales,鈥� Beattie says.
Fractal density structures in the world鈥檚 largest turbulence simulation, with high-densities shown in red, and low-densities shown in blue. Credit: Simulation: J. Beattie.
The paper was co-authored with researchers from Princeton University; Australian National University; the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics; Universit盲t Heidelberg; the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian; Harvard University; and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
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Lyuba Encheva
Communications and Events, CITA
lyuba@cita.utoronto.ca
