Supercomputer Embarks on Effort to Help Map the Universe, Dark Energy and All

Starting this summer, a team of international scientists working with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument survey project will use the supercomputer, dubbed Perlmutter, to analyze tens of thousands of astronomical objects observed each night by the Mayall telescope, part of the Kitt Peak National Observatory outside Tucson, Ariz. The goal is to capture light from more than 30 million galaxies and quasars, said Stephen Bailey, a physicist at Berkeley Lab and technical lead for DESI's data systems. Previous projects that mapped the universe analyzed sky surveys that totaled just a few million objects, according to Dr. Bailey. Perlmutter is named after Berkeley Lab's Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter. And even testing basic gravity," said Dr. Bailey.