A new Australian supercomputer has already delivered a stunning supernova remnant pic - Space.com

Within 24 hours of accessing the first stage of Australia’s newest supercomputing system, researchers have processed a series of radio telescope observations, including a highly detailed image of a supernova remnant.

Within 24 hours of accessing the first stage of Australia’s newest supercomputing system, researchers have processed a series of radio telescope observations, including a highly detailed image of a supernova remnant.

The very high data rates and the enormous data volumes from new-generation radio telescopes such as ASKAP (opens in new tab) (Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder) need highly capable software running on supercomputers.

This is where the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre comes into play, with a newly launched supercomputer called Setonix (opens in new tab) – named after Western Australia’s favourite animal, the quokka (opens in new tab) (Setonix brachyurus).

ASKAP, which consists of 36 dish antennas that work together as one telescope, is operated by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO; the observational data it gathers are transferred via high-speed optical fibres to the Pawsey Centre for processing and converting into science-ready images.

An exciting outcome of this exercise has been a fantastic image of a cosmic object known as a supernova remnant, G261.9+5.5 (opens in new tab).

Estimated to be more than a million years old, and located 10,000-15,000 light-years away from us, this object in our galaxy was first classified (opens in new tab) as a supernova remnant by CSIRO radio astronomer Eric R.

Hill in 1967, using observations from CSIRO’s Parkes Radio Telescope, Murriyang (opens in new tab).

The structure of this remnant revealed in the deep ASKAP radio image opens up the possibility of studying this remnant and the physical properties (such as magnetic fields and high-energy electron densities) of the interstellar medium in unprecedented detail.

The image of SNR G261.9+05.5 might be beautiful to look at, but the processing of data from ASKAP’s astronomy surveys is also a great way to stress-test the supercomputer system, including the hardware and the processing software.

We included the supernova remnant’s dataset for our initial tests because its complex features would increase the processing challenges.

For example, the image of the SNR was made by combining data gathered at hundreds of different frequencies (or colours, if you like), allowing us to get a composite view of the object.

Key to this quick first demonstration was the close collaboration between the Pawsey Centre and the ASKAP science data processing team members.

I am supercomputing applications specialist and researcher at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre.