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Small Stars, Smaller Planets, Big Computing

Image credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS
A Boston University doctoral student has been using the MGHPCC to run state-of-the-art models of M dwarf star atmospheres to better understand their composition characteristics and how that relates to the types of planets that form around them.

Planets form from the same cloud of gas and dust that the star they orbit formed from. They are both built from the same material. However, stars are mostly hydrogen and helium, and rocky planets like Earth are entirely made of heavier elements like oxygen, silicon, and magnesium. If the cloud the star and planets are forming from is richer in these heavier elements, there is more material to make planets. Indeed, astronomers find that planets are more common around stars that contain more of the planet-building elements.

Mark Veyette
PhD student, Boston University

Research projects

Foldit
Dusty With a Chance of Star Formation
Checking the Medicine Cabinet to Interrupt COVID-19 at the Molecular Level
Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold But Still, Is It Just Right?​
Smashing Discoveries​
Microbiome Pattern Hunting
Modeling the Air we Breathe
Exploring Phytoplankton Diversity
The Computer Will See You Now
Computing the Toll of Trapped Diamondback Terrapins
Edging Towards a Greener Future
Physics-driven Drug Discovery
Modeling Plasma-Surface Interactions
Sensing Subduction Zones
Neural Networks & Earthquakes
Small Stars, Smaller Planets, Big Computing
Data Visualization using Climate Reanalyzer
Getting to Grips with Glassy Materials
Modeling Molecular Engines
Forest Mapping: When the Budworms come to Dinner
Exploring Thermoelectric Behavior at the Nanoscale
The Trickiness of Talking to Computers
A Genomic Take on Geobiology
From Grass to Gas
Teaching Computers to Identify Odors
From Games to Brains
The Trouble with Turbulence
A New Twist
A Little Bit of This... A Little Bit of That..
Looking Like an Alien!
Locking Up Computing
Modeling Supernovae
Sound Solution
Lessons in a Virtual Test Tube​
Crack Computing
Automated Real-time Medical Imaging Analysis
Towards a Smarter Greener Grid
Heading Off Head Blight
Organic Light-Harvesting Antennae
Art and AI
Excited by Photons
Tapping into an Ocean of Data
Computing Global Change
Star Power
Engineering the Human Microbiome
Computing Social Capital
Computers Diagnosing Disease
All Research Projects

Collaborative projects

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Outreach & Education Projects

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