Summary: The spacefaring Romulans of Star Trek science fiction have inspired some astrophysicists to develop cosmological simulations called RomulusC, where the ‘C’ stands for galaxy cluster. With a focus on black hole physics, RomulusC has produced some of the finest resolution simulations ever of galaxy clusters, which can contain hundreds or even thousands of galaxies. On Star Trek, the Romulans powered their spaceships with an artificial black hole. In reality, it turns out that black holes can drive the formation of stars and the evolution of whole galaxies. An October 2019 study yielded results from RomulusC simulations, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Supercomputer simulations helped probe the ionized gas within and surrounding the intracluster medium, which fills the space between galaxies in a galaxy cluster. The Stampede2 supercomputer at TACC and the Comet supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center played a role, through allocation awarded by XSEDE, the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, funded by the National Science Foundation. The scientists also used the NASA Pleiades supercomputer, eventually completing the simulation on 32,000 processors of the Blue Waters system at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. On the podcast are two study co-authors, Iryna Butsky and Tom Quinn, both in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington. Iryna Butsky is a PhD Student, and Tom Quinn is a Professor of Astronomy. Podcast host Jorge Salazar with the Texas Advanced Computing Center conducts the Q&A. Story Link: www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/simulations-r…lusters-details Music Credit: Raro Bueno, Chuzausen freemusicarchive.org/music/Chuzausen/
