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The Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder at night
Image: CSIRO
The Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) has completed its first survey of the entire southern sky, creating what the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has labeled a new atlas of the Universe.
ASKAP mapped about 3 million galaxies in just 300 hours. The 13.5 exabytes of raw data generated by ASKAP was processed using CSIRO’s custom hardware and software.
“The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey is like a Google map of the Universe where most of the millions of star-like points on the map are distant galaxies, about a million of which we have never seen before,” CSIRO said in a statement.
The ASKAP, developed and operated by CSIRO, is a new type of radio telescope that creates images of radio signals from the sky to allow astronomers to see the Universe at wavelengths that the human eye cannot see.
It is part of the $ 1 billion Square Kilometer Array (SKA), which is slated to be the largest and most capable radio telescope ever built.
The ASKAP and Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope are located at the CSIRO-owned and operated Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) on Wajarri Yamaji land in remote Western Australia.
The processing of the data collected by the MWA and ASKAP telescopes was performed by the real-time supercomputing system of the Pawsey Supercomputing Center dedicated to radio astronomy, Galaxy.
Using ASKAP at MRO, the survey team observed 83% of the entire sky. With ASKAP’s advanced receivers, the team only needed to combine 903 images to form the complete sky map, significantly fewer than the tens of thousands of images needed for the first all-sky radio surveys conducted by the world’s leading telescopes.
“For the first time, ASKAP flexed all its muscles, building a map of the Universe in more detail than ever and at record speed,” said CSIRO astronomer Dr. David McConnell. “We expect to find tens of millions of new galaxies in future investigations.”
The Galaxy supercomputer converted the data into 2D radio images, which contained a total of 70 billion pixels. The final 903 images and supporting information amounted to 26 terabytes of data.
The CEO, Dr. Larry Marshall, said ASKAP can generate raw data at a faster rate than all Australian internet traffic.
“ASKAP is applying the latest in science and technology to age-old questions about the mysteries of the Universe and is providing astronomers around the world with new discoveries to solve their challenges,” he said.
“In an age where we have access to more data than ever before, ASKAP and the supercomputers that support it are providing unprecedented insights and using the tools that will support our data-driven future to make life better for all.”
The Pawsey Supercomputing Center announced in October that it would receive a new supercomputer under a $ 48 million contract signed with Hewlett Packard.
The new supercomputer will deliver up to 30 times more computing power – 50 petaflops – than the systems it is supposed to replace, Galaxy and Magnus.
The new system will be delivered in two phases, with phase one scheduled for the third quarter of 2021 to deliver a 45 percent increase in raw processing power in one fifth the size of the Magnus and Galaxy systems.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, CSIRO, along with the Genomics Health Alliance, announced the development of an “Australia’s first digital conversation agent” – a chatbot – that could support patients in making informed decisions about genomic testing for future health risks.
Dubbed Edna, which stands for electronic DNA, the chatbot was developed specifically to support genetic counseling for adults tested to ascertain the future risk of preventable or treatable conditions, known as additional discoveries.
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