The supercomputer Teide, which is located in the facilities of the Institute of Technology and Renewable Energy (ITER) in Granadilla de Abona, joins the investigation of the universe and the detection and monitoring of asteroids that may threaten the Earth. An agreement between the ITER, dependent on the Cabildo de Tenerifeand the Canarian company Light Bridges will allow this supercomputer process the images obtained in facilities such as the Teide Observatory, of the Institute of Astrophysics of Canary Islands (IAC), for subsequent use by the international research community.
The observation process of telescopes in different centers around the world, such as the one installed in Izaña, at the top of Tenerife, or that of Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma, generates a voluminous amount of digital data that can be stored, processed and analyzed for subsequent use by international researchers thanks to the Teide supercomputer. The ITER and Light Bridges project is called Astro Poc, an initiative that, in addition to providing precision to astrophysical research, encourages public-private collaboration.
A decisive role
El Teide, belonging to the D-ALiX Data Processing Center installed in Granadilla, will play a crucial role in providing accommodation for high-performance storage systems, which will allow the use of artificial intelligence techniques to speed up the scientific processing of this abundant information. digital that is obtained in astrophysical observatories
The scientific director of Light Bridges and researcher affiliated with the IAC, Miquel Serra-Ricart, explains that “the projects require processing a huge amount of astronomical data quickly and accurately.” “The information will be used in diverse fields of astronomy, from the detection and characterization of asteroids for planetary defense, to the discovery and monitoring of exoplanets or the search for optical counterparts to large energy explosions in the Universe.”
R&D projects
This contract between ITER and Light Bridges aims to develop joint R&D projects in the field of storage and processing of large volumes of information. The project is developed with private financing and at the risk and risk of its investors, mostly from the Canary Islands. The Minister of Innovation of the Tenerife Council, Juan José Martínez, highlights this contract “the commitment of both organizations to excellence in research and technological advancement, and represents a significant step to achieve a beneficial general objective, declared of general interest. such as the carrying out in the Canary Islands of activities related to research and innovation in astrophysics and its instrumentation. Likewise, an increase in the interest of economic operators in the astrophysics and space sector is expected, with benefits for technological innovation in areas such as computing or robotics.
