One of the world’s most powerful supercomputers is to be the brain of a revolutionary new radio telescope called LOFAR – the low-frequency array for radio astronomy. The telescope will map the Milky Way’s magnetic field and seek sources of high-energy cosmic rays.
But instead of using one large and expensive rigid dish, or a few tens of smaller dishes, LOFAR will use thousands of simple radio antennas distributed across the Netherlands and northern Germany. The signals will then be woven together at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands by Stella, a new supercomputer that is the third most powerful…
