Related papers: Dishing up the Data: A Decade of Space Missions

First observations for the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project were carried out in February 2004. The project is ongoing and we currently observe approximately every three weeks. The data have led to numerous scientific results on topics as…

Eight years after the ADS first appeared the last decadal survey wrote: "NASA's initiative for the Astrophysics Data System has vastly increased the accessibility of the scientific literature for astronomers. NASA deserves credit for this…

The Spitzer Space Telescope operated for over 16 years in an Earth-trailing solar orbit, returning not only a wealth of scientific data but, as a by-product, spacecraft and instrument engineering data which will be of interest to future…

I review the status of science with wide field surveys. For many decades surveys have been the backbone of astronomy, and the main engine of discovery, as we have mapped the sky at every possible wavelength. Surveys are an efficient use of…

Looking ahead to the next decade and imagining the landscape of astronomy in 2020, it is clear that astronomical surveys, large and small, plus extensive follow-up projects, will be a great engine of progress in our profession. Surveys have…

The Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA's Great Observatory for infrared astronomy, was launched 2003 August 25 and is returning excellent scientific data from its Earth-trailing solar orbit. Spitzer combines the intrinsic sensitivity achievable…

Kepler's primary mission is a search for earth-size exoplanets in the habitable zone of late-type stars using the transit method. To effectively accomplish this mission, Kepler orbits the Sun and stares nearly continuously at one…

We review some aspects of the current state of data-intensive astronomy, its methods, and some outstanding data analysis challenges. Astronomy is at the forefront of "big data" science, with exponentially growing data volumes and data…

Pulsar astronomy is currently enjoying one of the most productive phases in its history. In this review, I outline some of the basic observational aspects and summarise some of the latest results of searches for pulsars in the disk of our…

New classes of astronomical objects are often discovered serendipitously. The enormous data volumes produced by recent high-time resolution, radio-telescope surveys imply that efficient algorithms are required for a discovery. Such…

In January of 1985, more than 40 years ago, a group of astronomers met with NASA officials to map out the future of NASA space astronomy. Their efforts led to the Great Observatories program, linking four powerful space telescopes to study…

Data from observations of pulsars made by Murriyang, the CSIRO Parkes 64-metre radio-telescope over the last three decades are more accessible than ever before, largely due to their storage in expansive long-term archives. Containing nearly…

Wide-angle surveys have been an engine for new discoveries throughout the modern history of astronomy, and have been among the most highly cited and scientifically productive observing facilities in recent years. This trend is likely to…

The Ulysses spacecraft has been orbiting the Sun on a highly inclined ellipse since it encountered Jupiter in February 1992. Since then it made almost three revolutions about the Sun. Here we report on the final three years of data taken by…

After a decade of great progress in understanding gas flow into, out of, and through the Milky Way, we are poised to merge observations with simulations to build a comprehensive picture of the multi-scale magnetized interstellar medium…

Galaxy Surveys are enjoying a renaissance thanks to the advent of multi-object spectrographs on ground-based telescopes. The last 15 years have seen the fruits of this experimental advance, including the 2-degree Field Galaxy Redshift…

NASA regards data handling and archiving as an integral part of space missions, and has a strong track record of serving astrophysics data to the public, beginning with the the IRAS satellite in 1983. Archives enable a major science return…

On the 40th anniversary of the last human expedition to the Moon, I review the scientific legacy of the Apollo programme and argue that science would benefit from a human return to the Moon.

Saturn's quasi-periodic planet-encircling storms are the largest convecting outbursts in the Solar System. The last eruption was in 1990. A new eruption started in December 2010 and presented the first-ever opportunity to observe such…

In an era where astronomical data is expanding at an unprecedented rate, the importance of data sharing and accessibility among astronomy archives cannot be overstated. Since the 1990s, an international partnership between the Space…