Hmmm, it seems a DVD holds around 5 gigabytes of data, so a stack of DVDs (in their cases) that’s 9 stories high (or around 30 metres) must hold a ginormous amount of data. I guess it’d be measured in petabytes or exabytes.
Centaurus A. © Copyright CSIRO Australia, 26 May 2010.
You’d need a heck of a computer to process all of that. I guess the CSIRO in Australia has that much computing power available, as they need it for their latest astronomical endeavours:
Six radio telescopes across Australia and New Zealand have joined forces to act as one giant telescope, linking up over a distance of 5500 km for the first time. …
The linked telescope will make images ten times more detailed than those of the Hubble Space Telescope and has already been used to peer into the heart of a galaxy called Centaurus A. …
Lurking there is a black hole that shoots out jets of radio-emitting particles at close to the speed of light.
Observing for the galaxy for 10 hours, the telescopes took enough data to fill a stack of DVDs in their cases as high as a nine-storey building.
[Via Aussies and Kiwis forge a cosmic connection (Media Release).]
Wow!
By the way, check the full-size image for some detail. The purple ‘strip’ in the small image above is 300,000 light years across.
Let’s hope this venture strengthens our bid to host the Square Kilometre Array in Australasia.
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