Astronomers have developed a computer simulation to explore, in unprecedented detail, magnetism and turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM)—the vast ocean of gas and charged particles that lies between stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

Described in a study published in Nature Astronomy, the model is the most powerful to date, requiring the computing capability of the SuperMUC-NG supercomputer at the Leibniz Supercomputing Center in Germany. It directly challenges our understanding of how magnetized turbulence operates in astrophysical environments.

James Beattie, the paper’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) at the University of Toronto, is hopeful the model will provide new insights into the ISM, the magnetism of the Milky Way galaxy as a whole, and astrophysical phenomena such as star formation and the propagation of cosmic rays.