High Performance Computing happens more than ‘Once in a Blue Moon.’

Weather computational modeling and studies in astrophysics computing are progressing with the advent of high-performance computing. PSSC Labs supports research scientists in all varieties of the disciplines they study. Naturally, there was a lot of excitement when word spread about the appearance of a blue moon. The evening of August 31, 2012 brought a site to see.

A "blue moon" is the name given to the second full moon in a single month. It is a somewhat rare occurrence as it only happens once every three years.

Sometimes, however, the moon can appear to be visually blue in color. This hue is possible weather a moon is full or not. The event is caused by materials and particles in the atmosphere such as dust or smoke. The secret to witnessing a literal blue moon is by having the particles slightly wider than the wavelength of red light, with no other sizes present. On rare occurrences, volcanoes produce clouds that emit such particles. Forest fires also have the same effect, spreading a mixture of wide particles that create blue light. Most clouds pushed into the atmosphere contain a wider variety of particles, including many smaller than 1 micrometer. The smaller particles tend to scatter blue light. These clouds cause "red moons," which are much more common than a blue moon.

Navigate through the PSSC Labs website and learn more about the possibilities for high-performance servers and high performance clusters in these fascinating industries.

Photo Credit: Tomasjina/www.Space.com; www.pikespeakphoto.com/images/sunmoon/redmoon2.jpg