CTAO SDMC Live Streaming in English

CTAO SDMC Live Streaming in German

Zeuthen, Germany – On October 14, the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), along with hosting partners and shareholders Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, celebrated the official inauguration of the Science Data Management Centre (SDMC) on the DESY campus in Zeuthen.

The ceremony, chaired by Prof. Christian Stegmann, Head of DESY Zeuthen, was opened by Mario Brandenburg, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and Tobias Dünow, State Secretary at the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg (MWFK), followed by a panel discussion with Dr. Stuart McMuldroch, CTAO Managing Director; Prof. Beate Heinemann, DESY Director for Particle Physics; and Prof. Otmar Wiestler, President of the Helmholtz Association. The event brought together members of the CTAO Council, key figures from the international CTAO community, political representatives, regional partners and CTAO and DESY staff to celebrate an important milestone in the exploration of the high-energy Universe.

Speaking about the importance of the new facility, Brandenburg states: “The opening of the Science Data Management Centre (SDMC) in Zeuthen marks a milestone on the way to the CTAO. With the SDMC we are not only making a significant contribution to managing and processing the immense amounts of data generated by the CTAO observations. We also strengthen Germany’s position as a location for innovation. The SDMC impressively demonstrates how international co-operation in research and the use of state-of-the-art data management technologies can enable future scientific breakthroughs.”

CTAO SDMC in Zeuthen, Germany. Credit: DESY

The CTAO is an international observatory with telescope array sites located on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain, and in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Its Headquarters are located in Bologna, Italy. Located on the DESY campus, near Berlin, the CTAO SDMC coordinates the software and computing work of the Observatory, making CTAO‘s data products available to the worldwide community.

Tobias Dünow, State Secretary at the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg, said: “If you want to know why science and research are so immensely important and why every Euro invested there is an investment in the future, you just have to go to DESY in Zeuthen. DESY conducts research into questions of the future, from astroparticle physics to projects in the field of cancer therapy with accelerators and quantum computing, the answers to which will make our lives better and healthier. That is why we are delighted to have supported the construction of the Science Data Management Centre. The decision to locate the SDMC of the international gamma-ray observatory CTAO in Zeuthen is impressive proof of DESY’s excellence in research.”

The new €14 million building will accommodate 60 people and will be the home of the CTAO Science Data Management Centre and also host DESY offices and a new canteen.

“The opening of the SDMC represents a significant success and major milestone for the Observatory,“ explained Stuart McMuldroch during the inauguration. “The SDMC is a critical and essential part of our international effort to explore the high-energy Universe. It will provide essential data processing, software, and computing capabilities that significantly advance our mission. We are grateful to DESY and all those who made the SDMC a reality.”

Aligning with the regional importance of DESY, this is the first time an international research project will be co-hosted on the DESY Zeuthen campus, fostering top international research in Brandenburg and attracting scientist worldwide to work on its premises. 

“We are very pleased that the CTAO is locating its SDMC on the DESY campus in Zeuthen, and we look forward to even closer co-operation with the Observatory, in particular the Headquarters of the CTAO in Bologna,” commented Christian Stegmann, during the moderation. “The decision underlines the positive development of DESY in Zeuthen into a centre for astroparticle physics.”

The sources the CTAO will study, like supermassive black holes and supernova remnants, are the most energetic objects in the Universe. The CTAO will provide a very wide energy range, excellent angular and energy resolution and sensitivity in comparison to any existing gamma-ray detector. With its ability to detect energies between 20 GeV and 300 TeV and its unprecedented resolution, the CTAO will be able to observe further than ever before, providing a completely new view of the sky.

“As one of Germany’s largest research centres, DESY carries out fundamental research that creates new knowledge and new conceptual approaches,” Beate Heinemann, DESY Director in charge of Particle Physics said. “DESY has a long tradition of performing research in international collaborations, not only to foster scientific progress but also to enable exchanges between people from many nations. I am delighted that DESY continues this tradition by hosting the SDMC of the CTAO. The large competence of DESY in data management and analysis will be pivotal to fully exploit the CTAO data, and to learn more about some of the most mysterious and violent objects in our Universe.”

Otmar Wiestler adds from the perspective of the President of the Helmholtz Association: “The CTAO enables groundbreaking discoveries in astrophysics and opens new pathways for our understanding of the universe. At the Helmholtz Association, we are proud to make another important contribution to this remarkable international research project with the opening of the CTAO’s Science Data Management Centre (SDMC) at the German Electron Synchrotron DESY site in Zeuthen. The SDMC will be an excellent addition to the CTAO, serving as a central hub for processing and analyzing vast amounts of data, fostering long-term international collaboration, and thus making a significant contribution to the overall success of the project.”

 

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For further information and interview inquiries (both in person and online), please contact:

Dr. Alba Fernández-Barral

CTAO Chief Communications Officer

alba.fernandezbarral@cta-observatory.org 

Ulrike Behrens

Head of Communications at DESY Zeuthen

ulrike.behrens@desy.de 

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New Hub for High-Energy Astrophysics - CTAO Science Data Management Centre Opens at DESY in Zeuthen - CTAO