Check out this supercomputer’s stunning image of a supernova remnant

By Trevor Mogg Published August 11, 2022

Australia’s newest supercomputer has crunched masses of data to create a stunning image of a supernova remnant.

The supercomputer — named Setonix after Western Australia’s favorite animal, the quokka (Setonix brachyurus) — created the highly detailed image using data collected by ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometre Array) radio telescope, which is operated by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), the country’s science agency.

Recommended Videos

Setonix is located at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in Perth and is a key part of the facility’s recent $70 million upgrade. The supercomputer is being installed in two stages, with the second stage expected to be up and running by the end of 2022.

Dr. Pascal Elahi, Pawsey’s supercomputing applications specialist, said that processing data from ASKAP’s astronomy surveys “is a great way to stress-test the Setonix system and see what is possible.”

An image of a supernova remnant created by Setonix, Australia's newest supercomputer. — This radio continuum (943.5 MHz) ASKAP image is of the galactic supernova remnant G261.9+5.5, located somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 light years away. It was originally discovered by CSIRO scientist E. R. Hill in 1967, however not much is known about it. The morphology of the remnant revealed in the ASKAP image will aid in studying the remnant and its surrounding medium in unprecedented detail. Researchers hope to retrieve more information about the remnant’s age, size, and type from this data. Credit: Dr Wasim Raja/CSIRO, Dr Pascal Elah/Pawsey

Dr. Wasim Raja, a researcher on CSIRO’s ASKAP team, said the challenges in imaging a complex object like a supernova remnant (essentially the clouds of material that emerge from the explosion of a huge star at the end of its life) made it the ideal dataset for testing Setonix’s processing software.

“Setonix’s large, shared memory will allow us to use more of our software features and further enhance the quality of our images,” Raja said. “This means we will be able to unearth more from the ASKAP data.”

When the second stage of Setonix is fully deployed, the supercomputer will be up to 30 times more powerful than the combined capability of Pawsey’s earlier systems, Galaxy and Magnus.

The increased processing power means that we can expect even more incredible images from Setonix as ASKAP plans to send it more data from larger and deeper surveys of the sky.

Topics

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Space

Astronaut’s stunning image of Key West looks like a painting

Key West from the ISS.

Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata has been showing off his photography skills, sharing some impressive shots taken from the International Space Station (ISS) as it orbited Earth on Sunday.

The most impressive among his latest set is this stunner (below) of Key West at the western tip of the Florida Keys archipelago.

Space

Hubble captures rare image of a supernova as it happens

As a result of a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, three different moments in a far-off supernova explosion were captured in a single snapshot by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The light from the supernova, which was located behind the galaxy cluster Abell 370, was multiply lensed by the cluster’s immense gravity. This light took three different paths through the cosmic lens of the massive cluster. The three paths were three different lengths, so when the light arrived at Hubble (on the same day in December 2010), the supernova appeared at three different stages of evolution.

When a massive star runs out of fuel and approaches the end of its life, it explodes in a huge outpouring of energy called a supernova. These events can be so bright that they outshine entire galaxies, but they don't last for long -- just the blink of an eye, in cosmic terms. It's hard to capture the sudden brightness and fast dimming of a supernova event, because they are difficult to predict, but the Hubble Space Telescope recently managed to capture three different moments of a supernova in a single image.

"It is quite rare that a supernova can be detected at a very early stage, because that stage is really short," said Wenlei Chen, an author of the paper, in a statement. "It only lasts for hours to a few days, and it can be easily missed even for a nearby detection. In the same exposure, we are able to see a sequence of the images—like multiple faces of a supernova."

Space

The ghostly remnants of a dead star captured in stunning image

This image shows a spectacular view of the orange and pink clouds that make up what remains after the explosive death of a massive star — the Vela supernova remnant. This detailed image consists of 554 million pixels, and is a combined mosaic image of observations taken with the 268-million-pixel OmegaCAM camera at the VLT Survey Telescope, hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. OmegaCAM can take images through several filters that each let the telescope see the light emitted in a distinct colour. To capture this image, four filters have been used, represented here by a combination of magenta, blue, green and red. The result is an extremely detailed and stunning view of both the gaseous filaments in the remnant and the foreground bright blue stars that add sparkle to the image.

When a massive star runs out of fuel and comes to the end of its life, it can explode in an enormous and epic event called a supernova, which can be as bright as an entire galaxy. These explosions can obliterate anything around them, but they aren't simply destructive -- they can also create stunning structures called supernova remnants. These remnants are formed as shock waves from the explosion travel through nearby clouds of gas, sculpting them into beautiful shapes.

One such ghostly remnant has been captured by a ground-based instrument called OmegaCAM on the European Southern Observatory's VLT Survey Telescope. The Vela supernova remnant is located 800 light-years away and was created by the death of a star around 11,000 years ago.