Aiming for the sky: Launch of International Centre for Radio Astronomy

Dignitaries, academics and school students met at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) launch in September to mark an important collaborative achievement.

Western Australian chief scientist Professor Lyn Beazley hosted the launch and Premier Collin Barnett paid tribute to the impressive testament of genuine collaboration between universities in creating the centre.

The ICRAR multimedia presentation, demonstrated the integral part the centre will play in Western Australia’s bid for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a project aiming to build the world’s most sensitive radio telescope.

The SKA will have 50 times the sensitivity and 10,000 times the survey speed of any radio telescopes existing today.

This will allow exploration of questions about the birth of the universe, the search for life, the first black holes and stars, cosmic magnetism and evolution, while creating a platform for further scientific innovation and growth in both WA and Australia and extending to New Zealand.

At the launch, Premier Barnett said that the ICRAR is absolutely critical for Western Australia’s bid to be the site for the SKA.

His statements came after the allocation of A$80 million of State funding toward the Pawsey High Performance Computing Centre for SKA Science, which will enhance Australia’s bid.

The launch also featured talks from Parliamentary Secretary for Western and Northern Australia Gary Gray, the Minister for Science and Innovation Troy Buswell, ICRAR director Professor Peter Quinn and Curtin Vice-Chancellor Jeanette Hackett, as well as a moving, traditional introduction from Kim Collard to Noongar land.

SKA

Professor Peter Quinn, IBM's Glen Boreham and Western Australian Minister for Science, Innovation and Commerce Troy Buswell

In the same month, the ICRAR also announced its partnership with IBM.

IBM managing director of Australia and New Zealand, Glen Boreham said IBM was particularly proud to be part of the West and the development of such an incredible project.

“Just to give you a perspective on the significance of the project, IBM worked with NASA 40 years ago to put a man on the Moon and the amount of data that will need to be absorbed and analysed is, in our view, equivalent in its significance and technological challenge as the Moon shot.

“The Apollo 11 mission had less computing power than you have in your mobile phone today.

“In contrast the SKA will require the computing power equivalent of bringing together over one billion personal computers. The amount of data is one Exabyte per day, the equivalent of one thousand million USB sticks that we carry in our pockets.”

Minister for Science, Innovation and Commerce Troy Buswell said in its first hour alone, the SKA will generate more information than currently held in the entire World Wide Web.

He also emphasised the significance of the memorandum of understanding between IBM and ICRAR as aiding WA’s bid to host the SKA and developing a reputation as a hub of radio astronomy expertise.

“This information, along with the material captured by ASKAP, will be some of the most valuable radio astronomy information ever collected and will help us understand how the universe came to exist and evolve to its current state.

ICRAR director Professor Peter Quinn said the collaboration is important because the “colossal” amounts of data require spectacular computing power to be of any use.

“It’s about extracting the knowledge from the data,” Prof Quinn said.

“These are the systems science will need to be able to look back into the history of the universe and ask the important questions.”