Meet the astrophysicist who found Nyx, a new family of stars beyond the Milky Way

Using FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments) simulations, astronomers are able to model groups of stars, revealing the origin of these stellar furnaces. Starting models soon after the Big Bang, this simulation, one of the largest models of its type, shows how galaxies form into the formations we see today. Even using supercomputers, these nine simulations took months to complete. The GAIA spacecraft, launched in 2013, is on a mission to create 3D maps of a billion stars in and beyond the Milky Way. The observatory provides the motions of one billion stars.