IBM effort to bring astronomical power to telescope TECHNOLOGY

**COMMERCIAL IMAGE** In this photo distributed by Feature Photo Service for IBM: IBM scientist Ronald Luijten is working on exascale computers that can analyze exabytes of raw data in a five year collaboration with Astron, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy on Monday, April 2, 2012 in Rueschlikon, Switzerland. The computers are targeted to analyze faint radio signals from deep space eventually for the Square Kilometre Array project in 2024. The graphic depicts the SKA sensitivity at a particular radio wave frequency. (Christopher Sciacca/Feature Photo Service for IBM) less **COMMERCIAL IMAGE** In this photo distributed by Feature Photo Service for IBM: IBM scientist Ronald Luijten is working on exascale computers that can analyze exabytes of raw data in a five year collaboration ... more Photo: Christopher Sciacca, Associated Press Photo: Christopher Sciacca, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close IBM effort to bring astronomical power to telescope 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

International Business Machines Corp. has partnered with a team building the world's largest radio telescope to develop supercomputer systems to make sense of light-years of space data and the history of the universe.

The Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, known as Astron, and IBM will collaborate to research so-called exascale computers that consume little power. The technology will be needed to study faint radio signals from deep space produced by the Big Bang 13 billion years ago - to be collected by the Square Kilometre Array telescope when it's completed in 2024.

"The telescope will be used to explore evolving galaxies, dark matter and even the very origins of the universe," IBM and Astron said. "Scientists estimate that the processing power required to operate the telescope will be equal to several millions of today's fastest computers."

The initial five-year, $43.9 million "DOME project" in Drenthe, the Netherlands, will investigate technologies necessary to read, store and analyze 1 exabyte of raw data per day - twice today's entire daily Internet traffic. IBM, the world's biggest computer-services provider, is advancing technologies that increase memory capacity and reduce power consumption to process near-limitless data, to help business and government clients analyze performance and project trends.

"We have to invent futuristic technology to look into the past," said Ronald Luijten, IBM's lead researcher on the project in Zurich. "The energy issue is becoming ubiquitous. We need fundamental new technologies to deal with the needs of the future data centers."

The $1.995 billion telescope project is comparable in size, cost and international participation to the Large Hadron Collider developed by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, Luijten said. The collider is looking for the "same answers" as the telescope, by smashing protons together inside its particle accelerator, creating what Luijten called "mini Big Bangs."

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Construction of the super telescope will begin in 2017. It will be in Australia or South Africa where there is enough space to accommodate 3,000 dishes - 1 square kilometer (0.39 of a square mile) of antenna positioned across a continent - that make up the super telescope, Luijten said.

IBM has partnered with governments and universities in both potential host countries to develop software that will filter out "the noise" the telescope collects and create sky maps for astronomers.