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Astronomers Explode Virtual Supernova
DynaSoar writes "Scientists at the University of Chicago's Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes have created a simulation of a white dwarf exploding into a type 1a supernova. Using 700 processors and 58,000 hours, they produced a three second movie showing the initial burst that is thought to be the source of much of the iron in the universe. Understanding these supernovas is also important to testing current cosmological theories regarding dark matter and dark energy, as their brightness is used as a measurement of distance, and discrepancies found in the brightness of very distant supernovas consistently seem to indicate a change in the speed of expansion of the universe over time."
The priorities are NOT wrong!
Knowledge for knowledge's sake ALWAYS ends up paying off.
Just because we dont know how to make our lives better by virtue of gaining this knowledge now, there's no reason to suppose we'll never know (in fact, history indicates that eventually ALL research pays off to some extent).
If you RTFA and do a slight bit of reasoning (I know, I know, but try), you will see that this research directly helps us understand more of the hydrogen -> helium mechanincs.
Repeat after me:
ALL KNOWLEDGE IS VALUABLE.
KNOWING IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN NOT KNOWING.
Ignorance being bliss was a concept invented to placate the ignorant.