This image of the G261.9+5.5 supernova remnant, discovered back in 1964 by a CSIRO scientist, was generated by a brand new supercomputer, Setonix, based on the Cray EX platform. It is located at the Pawsey Centre, an Australian government-supported high-performance computing facility in Perth. The supernova is located somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 light years away from Earth.

The enormous amount of data was collected by the ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder) telescope, and transferred to the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre using a high-speed optical fiber link. The size, shape, and structure of the remnant revealed in the image should help scientists study the remnant and its surrounding medium in unprecedented detail.

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