‘We're using numbers to create something we can actually see'

By Susan Williams

While it's safe to assume the lesson plans will be on a more simplified level, you can get a good idea of the basics by looking at the work being done by Richard Durison, an IUB astronomy professor researching star and planet formation.

Durison uses computer calculations to simulate on the computer screen the large clouds of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium, that morph into planets with a little help from gravity. He manipulates the simulations to see how these clouds, or disks, might behave as gravity causes the gases to contract and collapse.

Durison said that, using principles derived from Newton's Laws of Motion, he and his associates calculate and assign numerical values to the gas density, pressure and velocity that exist in an actual gas disk. The calculations are applied to the simulations, which are depicted on the computer screen in a series of little picture boxes.

"We have millions of boxes to represent this flowing gas disk, and we use Newton's laws to say what one box does to the next over a period of time," explained Durisen. "Then we change the values of the physical variables in the boxes and do it all again.

"The disk simulations simply represent tables of numbers," Durisen explained. "Using what we know about physics, we're calculating how a disk behaves. We're using numbers to create something we can actually see."

Take a peek at Durisen's work.

Go to this Web site for more information on the NASA funded Durisen project.

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