HPCwire: Network Creates Virtual Super-Telescope

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June 09, 2009

Network Creates Virtual Super-Telescope

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June 8 -- Vast quantities of data are transferred in real time from telescopes around the world to a supercomputer in the Netherlands, where European researchers combine the information to create high-resolution images of distant objects in space.

By pointing up to 16 radio telescopes from six continents at one source in space and combining the observation signals from the telescopes via a high-speed network, European astronomers have created a "virtual telescope" that delivers better resolution than any single telescope on earth. The high-speed network also makes it easier for astronomers to react to so-called Targets of Opportunity -- transient events such as supernova explosions and gamma-ray bursts in space.

"In November last year, astronomers noticed flaring activity from SS433 and alerted other observatories," says Kristine Yun, public outreach officer for ExPReS (Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service), the project behind this intercontinental astronomical instrument.

SS433 is one of the most spectacular and intensely studied locations in the Milky Way. It comprises two objects orbiting each other. Huge quantities of hydrogen are transferred from one star to its orbiting partner -- a black hole or neutron star inside a dense, gas cloud. The flow of gas is so overwhelming that part of it is re-ejected by the neutron star in a pair of high-speed jets.

Within days, telescopes of the European VLBI Network (EVN) were turned towards SS433. Its activity was monitored in real time during three sessions and the data were made available within hours of the observations.

Breadth adds detail

Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is a technique in which radio telescopes around the world are combined to form a virtual telescope with a size equal to the maximum separation between the individual telescopes. The resolution such a telescope achieves is unsurpassed by any other astronomical instrument and allows astronomers to observe cosmic sources in great detail.

Until recently, each telescope made digital disk-based recordings of a source, interspersed by time signals from an atomic clock. The recordings were then physically shipped to the correlator in The Netherlands and combined to generate the higher resolution image. This process typically took weeks.

There are a number of VLBI arrays located in North America, Asia and Australia, as well as in Europe. The EVN is the most sensitive and includes some of the largest telescopes in the world. EVN is a part-time array with its data correlated and processed at the Joint Institute for VLBI Europe, or JIVE, in The Netherlands.

The high-speed data network developed for the EU-funded ExPReS project enables EVN to undertake real-time electronic or "e-VLBI" observation. For this purpose, the EVN correlator -- a powerful supercomputer located at JIVE -- was modified to enable the combination of signals from across the planet in real time.

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