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Register a new userTowards an Astronomical Science Platform: Experiences and Lessons Learned from Chinese Virtual Observatory
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In the era of big data astronomy, next generation telescopes and large sky surveys produce data sets at the TB or even PB level. Due to their large data volumes, these astronomical data sets are extremely difficult to transfer and analyze using personal computers or small clusters. In order to offer better access to data, data centers now generally provide online science platforms that enable analysis close to the data. The Chinese Virtual Observatory (China-VO) is one of the member projects in the International Virtual Observatory Alliance and it is dedicated to providing a research and education environment where globally distributed astronomy archives are simple to find, access, and interoperate. In this study, we summarize highlights of the work conducted at the China-VO, as well the experiences and lessons learned during the full life-cycle management of astronomical data. Finally, We discuss the challenges and future trends for astronomical science platforms.
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A coming resurgence of super heavy-lift launch vehicles has precipitated an immense interest in the future of crewed spaceflight and even future colonisation efforts. While it is true that a bright future awaits this sector, driven by commercial ventures and the reignited interest of old space-faring nations, and the joining of new ones, little of this attention has been reserved for the science-centric applications of these launchers. The Arcanum mission is a proposal to use these vehicles to deliver an L-class observatory into a highly eccentric orbit around Neptune, with a wide-ranging suite of science goals and instrumentation tackling Solar System science, planetary science, Kuiper Belt Objects and exoplanet systems.
In the framework of the Europlanet-RI program, a prototype of Virtual Observatory dedicated to Planetary Science was defined. Most of the activity was dedicated to the elaboration of standards to retrieve and visualize data in this field, and to provide light procedures to teams who wish to contribute with on-line data services. The architecture of this VO system and selected solutions are presented here, together with existing demonstrators.
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 VO effort. The concept of the VO is to provide the means by which an astronomer is able to discover, access, and process data seamlessly, regardless of its physical location. This paper describes the origins of the VAO, including the predecessor efforts within the U.S. National Virtual Observatory, and summarizes its main accomplishments. These accomplishments include the development of both scripting toolkits that allow scientists to incorporate VO data directly into their reduction and analysis environments and high-level science applications for data discovery, integration, analysis, and catalog cross-comparison. Working with the international community, and based on the experience from the software development, the VAO was a major contributor to international standards within the International Virtual Observatory Alliance. The VAO also demonstrated how an operational virtual observatory could be deployed, providing a robust operational environment in which VO services worldwide were routinely checked for aliveness and compliance with international standards. Finally, the VAO engaged in community outreach, developing a comprehensive web site with on-line tutorials, announcements, links to both U.S. and internationally developed tools and services, and exhibits and hands-on training .... All digital products of the VAO Project, including software, documentation, and tutorials, are stored in a repository for community access. The enduring legacy of the VAO is an increasing expectation that new telescopes and facilities incorporate VO capabilities during the design of their data management systems.
The VAO (Virtual Astronomical Observatory) Science Council (VAO-SC) met on July 27-28, 2011 at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge MA, to review the VAO performance during its first year of operations. In this meeting the VAO demonstrated the new tools for astronomers that are being released in September 2011 and presented plans for the second year of activities, resulting from studies conducted during the first year. This document contains the recommendations of the VAO-SC for the second year of activity of the VAO.
We report on the initial phase of an ongoing, multi-stage investigation of how to incorporate Virtual Reality (VR) technology in teaching introductory astronomy concepts. Our goal was to compare the efficacy of VR vs. conventional teaching methods using one specific topic, Moon phases and eclipses. After teaching this topic to an ASTRO 101 lecture class, students were placed into three groups to experience one of three additional activities: supplemental lecture, hands-on activity, or VR experience. All students were tested before and after their learning activity. Although preliminary, our results can serve as a useful guide to expanding the role of VR in the astronomy classroom.
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