Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2021

44 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2021 ASTRO PUBLISHING from a basic knowledge of a given phenomenon and applying a well- structured algorithm to its evolu- tion are essential requirements for launching a promising simulation. The higher the precision of the algo- rithm’s so-called “input data”, the more realistic the scenario produced by the simulation. In particularly fa- vorable cases, a simulation can gen- erate so much information that the result itself can be analyzed in de- tail, as if it were a non-virtual reality. For example, consider simulations of the entire universe, or at less ambi- tious scales, simulations of planetary systems. In the latter context, a re- cent work by astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, the University of Bern, and the University of Ari- zona deserves to be mentioned. The study, coordinated by Martin Schlecker (MPIA), had among its ob- Cold Jupiters and super-Earths, a rather interesting combination S imulations with supercomput- ers are tools of primary impor- tance in astronomy, allowing us to analyze the evolution of phenom- ena that instrumental and temporal limits do not permit us to study di- rectly. The results of the simulations, virtual scenarios based on physics models that should represent a real- ity not yet confirmed, are inevitably dependent on the “ingredients” of the simulations themselves. Starting by Michele Ferrara revised by Damian G. Allis NASA Solar System Ambassador