3-D universe copy in Groningen

The University of Groningen will become the center of a large-scale study of the universe. The Euclides satellite will be launched into space in 2020 and will send back countless pictures to Groningen. Based on 10 petabytes of data (10,000 Terabytes), scientists will create a 3-D image of the universe.

The pictures will enable the scientists to determine the position of the other 20 billion solar systems relative to earth. Scientists from more than ten countries, such as the U.S.A. and Germany, will join forces to try and figure out what dark matter is and why our universe keeps expanding. Solving the mystery would be as spectacular as the discovery of the Higgs particle about a year and a half ago. The project will cost about half a billion euros and is financed by the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA), among others. The Netherlands plays a major part in the project, since not only the data center is located in the Netherlands, but the computer system that will process the data is also developed in the Netherlands.