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.
SXS—Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes—is an ongoing scientific collaboration that has been generating simulations of dramatic events in space, particularly mergers of binary black hole systems, for several decades. Recently, ...
Astronomy
Oct 9, 2025
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Gravitational waves are energy-carrying waves produced by the acceleration or disturbance of massive objects. These waves, which were first directly observed in 2015, are known to be produced during various cosmological phenomena, ...
A hundred years before the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released the first image of a black hole in 2019—located at the heart of the galaxy M87—astronomer Heber Curtis had already discovered a strange jet protruding ...
Astronomy
Oct 6, 2025
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To probe the mysteries of how galaxies evolve over time, scientists needed a supercomputer with out-of-this-world computational power.
Astronomy
Oct 1, 2025
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The consortium running the European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid mission has published the most extensive simulation of the cosmos to date. The modeling was based on algorithms developed by UZH professor Joachim Stadel.
Astronomy
Sep 23, 2025
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An international research collaboration has used advanced computer simulations to investigate how faint radio signals from the early universe, soon to be observed from missions on the far side of the moon, could shed light ...
Astronomy
Sep 17, 2025
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Over the course of more than two decades, researchers at the University of Bern have developed the so-called "Bern model," a suite of computer programs that can numerically simulate the formation of planetary systems, thus ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 9, 2025
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We're often told it is "unscientific" or "meaningless" to ask what happened before the Big Bang. But a new paper by FQxI cosmologist Eugene Lim, of King's College London, UK, and astrophysicists Katy Clough, of Queen Mary ...
Astronomy
Aug 21, 2025
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Pictures are the key to new insights in the field of astrophysics. Such images include simulations of cosmic events, which astrophysicists at UZH use to investigate how stars, planets and galaxies came into existence.
Astronomy
Aug 20, 2025
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Researchers have used machine learning to dramatically speed up the processing time when simulating galaxy evolution coupled with supernova explosion. This approach could help us understand the origins of our own galaxy, ...
Astronomy
Jul 3, 2025
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