Funding boosts University of Exeter’s astronomy research

The grant is part of the STFC’s £12.32 million investment, from the Government’s Large Facilities Capital Fund, to invest in the UK’s High Performance Computing Consortia. This funding will provide UK physicists and astronomers with upgraded technology to address some of the most challenging scientific problems.

The University of Exeter bought its supercomputer (an SGI® Altix® ICE), for nearly £1 million in December 2007 to boost its research in astrophysics, physics and applied mathematics. It was ranked 6th most powerful super computer in a UK university in the June 2008 league-table for supercomputers, TOP500 Supercomputer Sites.

Professor Matthew Bate, Head of the University of Exeter’s Astrophysics Group said: “This funding will help Exeter to continue its world leading numerical research into star and planet formation, enabling us to reveal the physical processes that are most important for determining the masses and properties of stars and planets. At the same time, we will be training students in high performance computing and the modeling of complex physical systems, skills that are in great demand both in industry and in academia.”

The University has one of the UK’s largest astrophysics research groups working in the fields of star formation and extrasolar planets. Based in the School of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, the astrophysics group uses state-of-the-art telescopes on the ground and in space to conduct observations of young stars, their planet-forming discs, and extrasolar planets. This helps to put our Sun and the solar system into context and understand the variety of stars and planetary systems that exist in our Galaxy. The new supercomputer enables scientists to conduct complex calculations to simulate and understand star and planet formation.

To tackle this complex area of physics, the group creates fluid dynamical simulations. Starting with a cloud of hydrogen and helium gas, simulations performed by Professor Bate model the collapse of the gas cloud under the force of gravity, which leads to the process of star formation. The supercomputer allows the effects of radiation and magnetic fields, which have been too difficult to model in the past, to be included while simultaneously producing hundreds or thousands of stars. By performing simulations on this scale, the statistical properties of the stars can be compared to real observations made by members of the group and observers around the world, to see if the models provide an accurate description of the star formation process.

Other fluid dynamical simulations study the capture of gas by a solid protoplanet several times the mass of the Earth, which is embedded in a protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star. These calculations, performed by PhD student Ben Ayliffe, help us to understand how gas giant planets like Jupiter, Saturn, and those recently detected by Exeter astrophysicist Dr Jenny Patience and her collaborators around the star HR 8799 form.

Speaking about the STFC’s £12.32 million investment, the Minister of State for Science and Innovation Lord Drayson said, “Our physicists need the next generation of supercomputers to explore big questions about star formation, the forces within hadrons, and fluid dynamics. The UK is a world leader in the theoretical modelling of fundamental physics and this investment in new hardware will help to keep us on top.”

Professor Keith Mason, Chief Executive of the STFC, said, “This new investment will ensure that UK researchers can continue using novel computing solutions to enable cutting-edge research in astronomy, cosmology and particle physics and, at the same time, contribute to long-term economic recovery through training young scientists in the most powerful computing techniques of the 21st century. HPC is an invaluable tool for our science community and is helping us advance in many fields of science.”