Big machines for big questions

It takes a big computer to answer some of the most compelling questions in science: What is the origin of the universe? What happened during the Big Bang? How did the first stars and galaxies form? Is the answer really 42? 

Thanks to powerful supercomputers and intelligent algorithms, researchers today are equipped with advanced tools to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos!

Are we alone?

For millennia, people have turned their gaze to the stars and pondered if there are others like us out there.

Using HPC, scientists can simulate extraterrestrial environments, supporting the search for habitable planets and life beyond our solar system.

With the potential for as many as 300 million habitable planets in our galaxy alone, such simulations can help astronomers recognise signs of life.

Going back in time

Co-located in South Africa and Western Australia, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a multi-billion dollar international effort to build the world’s largest radio telescope.

Researchers at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have been studying the early universe with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope, a precursor to the SKA.

Working with ICRAR researchers, our HPC experts onboarded and optimised ICRAR’s code for processing the MWA data on our Perth supercomputer Bruce, achieving runtimes that were 125 times faster!

Using these results ICRAR published a new paper that advances our understanding of the epoch of reionisation—the dawn of the first stars, galaxies and black holes in our universe.