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

Zeuthen, Germany – On 14 October 2024, 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, Germany.

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 Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (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."

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 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."

About the CTAO

The CTAO will be the world's largest and most powerful observatory for gamma-ray astronomy. The Observatory's unique capabilities will help us to address some of the most perplexing questions in astrophysics, falling under three major themes: understanding the origin and role of relativistic cosmic particles; probing extreme environments, such as black holes or neutron stars; and exploring frontiers in physics, searching for dark matter or deviations from Einstein's theory of relativity.

The CTAO is an international observatory with facilities located in Europe and South America: two arrays of telescopes in each hemisphere, CTAO-North in La Palma (Spain) and CTAO-South in the Atacama Desert (Chile), as well as the Headquarters in Bologna (Italy) and its Science Data Management Centre in Zeuthen (Germany).

The CTAO requires the collaboration and investment of a wide international network of countries and contributors. The Observatory is supported financially by a growing list of shareholders, which includes more than ten countries and an intergovernmental organisation. More than 1,500 people working in different international teams contribute to the implementation of the CTAO, as well as to its scientific, software and hardware development.

The CTAO was included in the 2008 roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) and promoted to a Landmark project in 2018 and is a top-ranked priority amongst new ground-based infrastructure projects in ASTRONET's "Roadmap 2022-2035: A Strategic Plan for European Astronomy."

About the CTAO SDMC

The CTAO SDMC is one of the Observatory's four core facilities. Located on the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY campus in Zeuthen, Germany, it serves as the scientific gateway for data received from the two telescope arrays and will coordinate both software and computing efforts, making CTAO's data products available to the worldwide community. This approach stems from CTAO's commitment to Open Science, making it the first observatory of its kind to operate as an open, proposal-driven observatory providing public access to its high-level science data and software products.

The CTAO SDMC will be the home of the CTAO Computing Department. From handling the proposal submissions to the dissemination of data to scientists, the Computing team, with the support of In-Kind Contributors, is working to develop a package of hardware and software products to support the flow of data. Operating from the CTAO SDMC, they will coordinate with several off-site data centre partners for the Observatory's data processing and simulation needs and are directly responsible for the installation of the on-site data centres and control rooms at the two array sites.

More information, including a FAQ document about the CTAO and its SDMC, as well as images from the event are available on the website: www.ctao.org/news/ctao-sdmc-inauguration/

More information:
There are FAQ sheets and images of the event available on the dedicated webpage: www.ctao.org/news/ctao-sdmc-inauguration/

Videos, renderings and photos about the CTAO available on the CTAO Flickr channel: www.flickr.com/photos/ctao-universe/

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

or

Ulrike Behrens

Head of Communications at DESY Zeuthen

ulrike.behrens@desy.de

Provided by Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory