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Foeschungszentrum Jülich - Research in Jülich 1_2013

I f you look into the sky at the constella- tion of Orion when the conditions are right, you will see the cluster of stars on which Christina Korntreff modelled her simulation. The Orion Nebula Cluster is one of the most productive stellar nurseries in relative proximity to the Sun. Such clusters form from huge clouds of gas. In these clouds, gravity causes hydrogen molecules in particular to clump together until the atomic nuclei amalgamate and nuclear fusion is trig- gered. When this happens, a star is born. “Over the last ten years, it has be- come clearer that stars are formed al- most exclusively in groups of stars re- ferred to as clusters,” explains Christina Korntreff. The 28-year-old is a PhD stu- dent at the Jülich Supercomputing Cen- Christina Korntreff doesn’t need a telescope for her work. She researches stars by simulating them on supercomputers instead. Merging Stars When two stars become one: Christina Korntreff simulates the interactions between gas and binary stars. Her work provides insights into what happens when galactic molecular clouds turn into fields of lower density. Research in Jülich 1|201314

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