Acquisition of a Solar System Evolution Hardware Package

Levison公司将采购6个最先进的工作站，这些工作站将通过高速网络连接在一起，形成一个单一的、强大的、并行架构的计算机，被称为“太阳系轨道数值积分集群”或“SSONIC”。sononic将致力于解决一些关于地球和太阳系中其他天体的起源和演化的主要问题。在过去的15年里，越来越明显的是，像彗星和类固醇这样的小天体，通过吸积过程，在地球和行星的形成和演化中发挥了重要作用。在行星形成后，小行星和彗星的撞击深刻地影响了地球气候的演变：1)提供挥发物和有机物质；2)造成长期的气候灾难。为了充分了解它们对地球和其他行星的影响，需要了解这些天体的动态演化。直到最近，在研究形成过程和长期演化所必需的时间尺度上对太阳系物体动力学的直接数值模拟已经超出了正常的计算范围。然而，由于计算机硬件和软件的最新进步，现在有可能解决仅仅两三年前难以解决的太阳系动力学问题。超音速计算系统将使pi在理解太阳系中地球和其他行星等天体的起源和演化方面取得重大进展。* * *

ABSTRACT AST-9413813 Levison, Hal The PIs will acquire 6 state-of-the-art workstations that will be linked together using a high-speed network to form a single, powerful, parallel-architecture computer, to be called "Solar System Orbit Numerical Integrating Cluster' or 'SSONIC'.SSONIC will be dedicated to solving some of the leading questions about the origin and evolution of the Earth and other bodies in the solar system. It has become increasingly apparent in the past 15 years that small bodies such as comets and steroids played, through accretionary processes, a fundamental role in the formation and evolution of the Earth and planets. After the planets formed, asteroidal and cometary impacts profoundly influenced the evolution of Earth's climate by i) providing volatiles and organic materials and ii) causing long-term climatic catastrophes. Understanding the dynamical evolution of these bodies is required in order to fully understand their effects on the Earth and other planets. Until very recently, direct numerical simulations of the dynamics of solar system objects over the timescales necessary to study the formation process and long-term evolution have been beyond normal computational reach. However, due to recent advancements in computer hardware and software, it is now possible to attack problems in solar system dynamics which were intractable only two or three years ago. The SSONIC computing system will allow the PIs make significant inroads in understanding the origin and evolution of bodies in the Solar System like the Earth and other planets. ***