Communications of the ACM
Neutron Stars in the Computer Cloud
Using the Einstein@Home project to analyze archival data, researchers have identified 24 pulsars, which may be used as testbeds for Einstein's general theory of relativity.
Credit: DBolic Pty Ltd.
Max Planck Institute researchers are using the Einstein@Home project to analyze archival data from the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in Australia. Using new search methods, the global computer network discovered 24 pulsars, which can be used as testbeds for Einstein's general theory of relativity.
"Through the participation of the public, we discovered 24 new pulsars in our Milky Way, which had previously been missed--and some of them are particularly interesting," says Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics researcher Benjamin Knispel.
Each week, 50,000 volunteers from around the world donate idle compute cycles on their 200,000 home and office PCs to the Einstein@Home project, for a total of about 860 teraflops per second, which is similar to the world's fastest supercomputers.
"Our discoveries prove that distributed computing projects like Einstein@Home can play an important role in modern, data-based astronomy," says Einstein@Home director Bruce Allen.
Meanwhile, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy director Michael Kramer says "in one of our next projects, we would like to use Einstein@Home's computing power to search for pulsars in compact binary systems using 'fresh' data from our very sensitive radio telescope near Effelsberg."
From Max Planck Gessellschaft
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