Numerical simulations in gravitation and astrophysics are computational techniques that solve the governing equations of gravitational dynamics—typically Einstein’s field equations of general relativity or the Newtonian/relativistic N-body problem—using discretization schemes such as finite difference, finite volume, spectral, or particle-based methods. They enable quantitative modeling of systems like compact-object binaries, gravitational-wave sources, stellar evolution, accretion flows, galaxy formation, and large-scale structure. These simulations incorporate additional physics (e.g., magnetohydrodynamics, radiation transport, nuclear microphysics) and employ high-performance computing, adaptive mesh refinement, and sophisticated time-integration algorithms to resolve multi-scale, nonlinear phenomena inaccessible to purely analytic approaches.
Astronomers who simulate galaxies do not always get the same result, even when they start from identical conditions. New research from Leiden University shows that this is not a flaw, but a consequence of how galaxies behave—and ...
Astronomy
May 11, 2026
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Understanding the universe as a whole requires simulations on cosmic scales. An international team of astrophysicists, with a leading role for researchers at Leiden University, Netherlands, has now released one of the largest ...
Astronomy
Apr 28, 2026
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Researchers from Bar-Ilan University have successfully recreated key features of black hole physics in a laboratory setting using an innovative optical system that mimics how black holes behave after violent cosmic events ...
General Physics
Apr 21, 2026
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Supermassive black holes are among the most enigmatic objects in the universe. They typically weigh millions or even billions of times the mass of the sun and sit at the centers of most large galaxies. At the heart of the ...
Astronomy
Apr 14, 2026
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The most realistic picture yet of how galaxies formed and then evolved from the beginning of time has been revealed in a suite of new and unique audiovisual simulations. These data, accepted for publication in the Monthly ...
Astronomy
Apr 13, 2026
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An astronomer at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is using data from the Canada–France–Hawaiʻi Telescope (CFHT) on Maunakea to help reconstruct a slow-motion cosmic collision, one that has been unfolding for hundreds of ...
Astronomy
Apr 1, 2026
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61
Like many scientists, theoretical physicist Andrew Strominger was unimpressed with early attempts at probing ChatGPT, receiving clever-sounding answers that didn't stand up to scrutiny. So he was skeptical when a talented ...
General Physics
Feb 20, 2026
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312
Surprisingly, some of the universe's brightest objects are black holes. As scorching gas and dust flow around and into a black hole, they glow with fierce intensity across the light spectrum. Now, a team of computational ...
Astronomy
Dec 3, 2025
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Dark matter and its impact on cosmology have puzzled physicists for nearly a century. At Perimeter Institute, two researchers are trying to better understand how one potential dark matter candidate, self-interacting dark ...
Astronomy
Dec 1, 2025
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70
Researchers have successfully performed the world's first Milky Way simulation that accurately represents more than 100 billion individual stars over the course of 10 thousand years. This feat was accomplished by combining ...
Astronomy
Nov 17, 2025
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