The thesis deals with the study of giant radio galaxies (GRGs), which are radio galaxies of megaparsec sizes. Their enormous size and rarity have been investigated in this thesis. The study... Show moreThe thesis deals with the study of giant radio galaxies (GRGs), which are radio galaxies of megaparsec sizes. Their enormous size and rarity have been investigated in this thesis. The study included searching and consequent finding of the largest samples of GRGs and thereby enabling to study of their properties in detail. Also, the properties were compared to smaller sized radio galaxies to investigate possible differences which could be the factor for their giant sizes. Show less
The LOFAR radio telescope produces petabytes of data every year. Radio Astronomers use complex multi-step pipelines to process this data and produce scientific images. In this thesis, we describe... Show moreThe LOFAR radio telescope produces petabytes of data every year. Radio Astronomers use complex multi-step pipelines to process this data and produce scientific images. In this thesis, we describe methods for astronomers to efficiently process massive amounts of data on high-throughput clusters. We gain insights into efficient acceleration of complex scientific pipelines, as well as understanding of the scalability of the underlying software. These insights ensure the scientific output of LOFAR keeps up with the pace of the data the telescope produces. Moreover, our results can be applied to arbitrary scientific studies, greatly increasing the potential of the LOFAR telescope. Finally, our discoveries can be applied to current and future telescopes. These lessons will help astronomers efficiently producing science in the big data era. Show less
