Related papers: OPTICON and the Virtual Observatory

The advent of experimental science facilities-instruments and observatories, such as the Large Hadron Collider, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, and the upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope-has brought about…

Interoperability is one of the key issues in the current efforts to build the Virtual Observatory. We present here some of the tools which already contribute to the efficient exchange of information between archives, databases, and…

Quantum optics potentially offers an information channel from the Universe beyond the established ones of imaging and spectroscopy. All existing cameras and all spectrometers measure aspects of the first-order spatial and/or temporal…

The stellar astronomy has always been considered the fundamental source of knowledge about the basic building blocks of the universe - the stars. It has proved correctness of many physical theories - like e.g. the idea of nuclear fusion in…

The U.S. Virtual Astronomical Observatory (VAO; http://www.us-vao.org/) has been in operation since May 2010. Its goal is to enable new science through efficient integration of distributed multi-wavelength data. This paper describes the…

Over the past decade, sky surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have proven the power of large data sets for answering fundamental astrophysical questions. This observational progress, based on a synergy of advances in telescope…

Astronomical researchers often think of analysis and visualization as separate tasks. In the case of high-dimensional data sets, though, interactive exploratory data visualization can give far more insight than an approach where data…

The realization of multimessenger astrophysics will open new vistas upon the most energetic events in the universe. Messenger particles of all four of nature's fundamental forces, recorded by detectors on the ground and satellites in space,…

The U.S. Virtual Astronomical Observatory was a software infrastructure and development project designed both to begin the establishment of an operational Virtual Observatory (VO) and to provide the U.S. coordination with the international…

Data volumes from multiple sky surveys have grown from gigabytes into terabytes during the past decade, and will grow from terabytes into tens (or hundreds) of petabytes in the next decade. This exponential growth of new data both enables…

Infrastructures are not inherently durable or fragile, yet all are fragile over the long term. Durability requires care and maintenance of individual components and the links between them. Astronomy is an ideal domain in which to study…

This article reviews the current status of gravitational wave astronomy and explains why astronomers are excited about the new generation of gravitational wave detectors. As part of the review we compare and contrast gravitational radiation…

We review some of the recent developments and challenges posed by the data analysis in modern digital sky surveys, which are representative of the information-rich astronomy in the context of Virtual Observatory. Illustrative examples…

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…

From the moment astronomical observations are made the resulting data products begin to grow stale. Even if perfect binary copies are preserved through repeated timely migration to more robust storage media, data standards evolve and new…

The data volumes stored in telescope archives is constantly increasing due to the development and improvements in the instrumentation. Often the archives need to be stored over a distributed storage architecture, provided by independent…

Astronomers are good at sharing data, but poorer at sharing knowledge. Almost all astronomical data ends up in open archives, and access to these is being simplified by the development of the global Virtual Observatory (VO). This is a great…

Multi-messenger astronomy is becoming the key to understanding the Universe from a comprehensive perspective. In most cases, the data and the technology are already in place, therefore it is important to provide an easily-accessible package…

The next generation of large ground-based optical and infrared telescopes will provide new challenges for designers of astronomical instrumentation. The varied science cases for these extremely large telescopes (ELTs) require a large range…

The past year has witnessed discovery of the first identified counterparts to a gravitational wave transient (GW 170817A) and a very high-energy neutrino (IceCube-170922A). These source identifications, and ensuing detailed studies, have…