Australian scientists say they will map tens of millions of new galaxies using an advanced telescope in the desert.
The CSIRO, the national science agency, said its new telescope had created "a Google Maps style atlas of the universe" in record time - under 300 hours.
It mapped three million galaxies in total, with pictures revealing twice the level of detail of previous surveys, the study said.
With the data publicly available, scientists around the world would be able to study "everything from star formation to how galaxies and their super-massive black hole evolve and interact", said lead author Dr David McConnell.
“For the first time ASKAP has flexed its full muscles, building a map of the Universe in greater detail than ever before, and at record speed.
“We expect to find tens of millions of new galaxies in future surveys.”
Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Karen Andrews said ASKAP is another example of Australia’s world-leading radio astronomy capability.
“ASKAP is a major technological development that puts our scientists, engineers and industry in the driver’s seat to lead deep space discovery for the next generation.
“This new survey proves that we are ready to make a giant leap forward in the field of radio astronomy.”
The 13.5 exabytes of raw data generated by ASKAP were processed using hardware and software custom-built by CSIRO.
The Pawsey Supercomputing Centre’s ‘Galaxy’ supercomputer converted the data into 2D radio images containing a total of 70 billion pixels.
The final 903 images and supporting information amount to 26 terabytes of data.
