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 high data rates and enormous data volumes of next-generation radio telescopes such as ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder) require highly capable software running on supercomputers.
That’s where the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Center comes in, with a newly launched supercomputer called Setonix, named after Western Australia’s favorite animal, the quokka (Setonix brachyurus).
ASKAP, which consists of 36 satellite dishes that work together like a telescope, is operated by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO; the observational data it collects is transferred via high-speed optical fibers to the Pawsey Center for processing and conversion into science-ready images.
In a major milestone on the road to full deployment, we have now demonstrated the integration of our ASKAPsoft processing software into Setonix, with stunning visuals.
Traces of a dying star
An exciting result of this exercise has been a fantastic image of a cosmic object known as a supernova remnant, G261.9+5.5.
Estimated to be over a million years old and located 10,000-15,000 light-years away, this object in our galaxy was first classified as a supernova remnant by CSIRO radio astronomer Eric R. Hill in 1967, using observations by Parkes of CSIRO. Radio Telescope, Murriyang.
Supernova remnants (SNRs) are the remnants of powerful explosions from dying stars. The material ejected from the explosion plows outward into the surrounding interstellar medium at supersonic speeds, sweeping up gas and any material it encounters along the way, compressing and heating them in the process.
Galactic supernova remnant G261.9+5.5. (Wasim Raja/CSIRO; Pascal Elah/Pawsey)
In addition, the shock wave would also compress the interstellar magnetic fields. The emissions we see in our radio image of G261.9+5.5 come from highly energetic electrons trapped in these compressed fields. They contain information about the history of the exploded star and aspects of the surrounding interstellar medium.
The structure of this remnant revealed in the ASKAP deep 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 with a unprecedented detail.
Testing a supercomputer
The image of SNR G261.9+05.5 may be beautiful to look at, but processing data from ASKAP’s astronomy surveys is also a great way to stress test the supercomputer system, including hardware and software of processing
We included the supernova remnant dataset for our initial tests because its complex features would increase the processing challenges.
Data processing even with a supercomputer is a complex exercise, with different processing modes triggering various potential problems. For example, the SNR image was made by combining data collected at hundreds of different frequencies (or colors, if you will), allowing us to get a composite view of the object.
But there is also a treasure trove of information hidden in the individual frequencies. Extracting this information often requires imaging at each frequency, requiring more computing resources and more digital space to store.
Although Setonix has adequate resources for such intensive processing, a key challenge would be to establish the stability of the supercomputer when grappling with such enormous amounts of data day in and day out.
Key to this early rapid demonstration was the close collaboration between the Pawsey Center and members of the ASKAP scientific data processing team. Our teamwork allowed us all to better understand these challenges and find solutions quickly.
These results mean that we will be able to discover more from the ASKAP data, for example.
More to come
But this is only the first of two phases of Setonix’s installation, with the second expected to be completed by the end of the year.
This will allow data teams to process more of the large amounts of data coming from many projects in a fraction of the time. In turn, it will not only allow researchers to better understand our Universe, but will undoubtedly discover new objects hidden in the radio sky. The variety of scientific questions that Setonix will allow us to explore in shorter periods of time opens up so many possibilities.
This increase in computational capacity benefits not only ASKAP, but all Australian-based researchers in all fields of science and engineering who can access Setonix.
While the supercomputer is in full operation, so is ASKAP, which is currently finishing a series of pilot surveys and will soon conduct even larger and deeper surveys of the sky.
The supernova remnant is just one of the many features we’ve now revealed, and we can expect many more stunning images and the discovery of many new celestial objects soon.
Wasim Raja, Research Scientist, CSIRO and Pascal Jahan Elahi, Supercomputing Applications Specialist, Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, CSIRO.
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