Boffins create supernova using 700 computer processors

BOFFINS HAVE MANAGED to create a virtual supernova using 700 computer processors, some double-sided Sellotape, and some fairly cunning 3D software.

According to Space.com, astronomers have tried in vain to virtually blow up an Earth-size star using strings of computer code to find out the step-by-step process that fuels such an explosion of white dwarf stars.

So far all they had managed to do was simulate an explosion with scientists manually telling the computer model to detonate the star.

Now the University of Chicago Centre for blowing things up, or the Centre for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes as it is officially known, has managed to get a model which destroys itself.

Top boffin Don Lamb said that they told him he couldn't blow anything up in 3D, but he did it just the same. It took some pretty extreme computing to do the task. More than 700 computer processors took 58,000 hours to play out the three-second explosion.

In the end it all acted a bit like a diesel compression engine. Split seconds before the bang, a flame bubble spanning about 10 miles in diameter forms near the centre of the star. The bubble jets to the star's surface crashes into itself and triggers the detonation.

When a White Dwarf goes nova, it distributes iron throughout the galaxy, of course you can get a similar reaction if you try to install a DVD-rewriter onto computer while forgetting to switch it off. µ