Related papers: Pro-Am Collaboration and the AAVSO
We review some of the scientific opportunities and technical challenges posed by the exploration of the large digital sky surveys, in the context of a Virtual Observatory (VO). The VO paradigm will profoundly change the way observational…
While software and algorithms have become increasingly important in astronomy, the majority of authors who publish computational astronomy research do not share the source code they develop, making it difficult to replicate and reuse the…
This white paper offers cautionary observations about the planning and development of new, large radio astronomy instruments. Complexity is a strong cost driver so every effort should be made to assign differing science requirements to…
Telescopes are much more expensive than astronomers, so it is essential to minimize required sample sizes by using the most data-efficient statistical methods possible. However, the most commonly used model-independent techniques for…
In the next coming years, space activities are expected to undergo a radical transformation with the emergence of new satellite systems or new services which will incorporate the contributions of artificial intelligence and machine learning…
This paper addresses the problem of synthesizing the behavior of an AI agent that provides proactive task assistance to a human in settings like factory floors where they may coexist in a common environment. Unlike in the case of requested…
We introduce AstroSim, a Second Life based prototype application for synchronous collaborative visualization targeted at astronomers.
The time domain has been identified as one of the most important areas of astronomical research for the next decade. The Virtual Observatory is in the vanguard with dedicated tools and services that enable and facilitate the discovery,…
In 2011, the AAVSO conducted a survey of 615 people who are or were recently active in the 101-year old organization. The survey included questions about their demographic background and variable star interests. Data are descriptively…
Computational skills are required across all astronomy disciplines. Many students enter degree programs without sufficient skills to solve computational problems in their core classes or contribute immediately to research. We recommend…
This paper proposes a new communication protocol for a cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system. In this system, based on users' channel conditions, each two NOMA users are paired to reduce system complexity. In this…
Despite the lack of important functions supported only by legacy applications, the current VO-compatible tools have enough capabilities to allow powerful analysis of stellar spectra using both public archives and local proprietary data. We…
The procedure that is currently employed to allocate time on telescopes is horribly onerous on those unfortunate astronomers who serve on the committees that administer the process, and is in danger of complete collapse as the number of…
We analyze a science collaboration network, i.e. a network whose nodes are scientists with edges connecting them for each paper published together. Furthermore we develop a model for the simulation of discontiguous small-world networks that…
In this paper, we discuss the benefits of ground-based, adaptive optics (AO) aided observations for star formation research. After outlining the general advantages, we present results obtained during the ALFA science demonstration programme…
To-date, all human economic activity has depended on the resources of a single planet, and it has long been recognized that developments in space exploration could in principle open our closed planetary economy to external resources of…
All sciences, including astronomy, are now entering the era of information abundance. The exponentially increasing volume and complexity of modern data sets promises to transform the scientific practice, but also poses a number of common…
We describe the needs and opportunities for preserving cosmology datasets and simulations, and facilitating their joint analysis beyond the lifetime of individual projects. We recommend that DOE fund a new cosmology data archive center to…
Machine Learning is a powerful tool for astrophysicists, which has already had significant uptake in the community. But there remain some barriers to entry, relating to proper understanding, the difficulty of interpretability, and the lack…
The authors investigate how teaching art and astronomy together has the potential to inspire new art forms, enhance scientific public outreach, and promote art and science education. The authors teach an astro-animation class at the…