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Theme
I-10: Cooperative data activities, data sharing and virtual
telescopes in modern astronomy and astrophysics – Dr. G. Oertel
(US)
Presentation abstracts
will appear here as soon as possible.
This session
will explore different dimensions of virtual astronomy and how
advances in informatics and telecommunications will change how
we look into the sky and understand what we see.
Talks
will include:
- Definition of
a virtual observatory, and goals and objectives for the astronomy
community
- International
perspectives on goals and opportunities for creating a virtual
observatory
- A 21st century
ground-based astronomical facility perspective
Based on new Decade Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics
2000-2010, US Academy of Sciences
- A space-based
astronomical facility perspective
Hubble has revolutionized astronomical science and stretched
data acquisition, transmission, use, and archiving at
the Space Telescope Science Institute and its counterpart,
the European Control Facility. The demands of Hubble's
planned successor, the 8-meter aperture Next Generation
Space Telescope, on data management will exceed those
from Hubble by several orders of magnitude. The extensive
use of the Hubble archive and the ability to also access
other astronomical archives at the Institute and at the
ECF constitutes first steps toward a virtual observatory.
Plans for further development of this international capability
will be described.
- A Chinese
astronomy program perspective
A virtual observatory will be for everybody who has the
technology and infrastructure to use it and contribute
to it. China has aggressive plans for an interdisciplinary
data center and will produce data at the forefront of
astronomy through space missions and through the planned
Schmidt survey telescope which will be the largest such
facility with the largest data acquisition rate on Earth.
The speaker will describe how China might interact with,
use, and contribute to an international virtual observatory.
- Realizing a virtual
observatory: perspective from a funding agency.
A virtual observatory will serve national and international
communities in science, education, and outreach. While it
can be and should be distributed at many diverse locations,
there will be a need for a common architecture and policies
to ensure that the virtual observatory is more than a collection
of individual archives but has its own "look and feel" for
researchers, students, media, and perhaps the public. The
speaker will address issues of leadership, organization, and
funding that arise in realizing the concept.
- Panel discussion:
International and interdisciplinary opportunities and challenges
in a virtual observatory
Submitted abstracts
include:
The Age of Megasurveys:
Towards a Virtual Observatory
Alex Szaley, The John Hopkins Unuversity, Baltimore, MD
A 21st Century Ground-Based
Astronomical Facility Perspective
Matthew Mountain, Director, International Gemini Project, Hilo,
Hawaii
Data Sharing from
the Hubble Deep Field
Steven V. Beckwith, Director, Hubble Space Telescope Science
Institute, Baltimore, Maryland
Astronomical Virtual
Observatories: A European Perspective
Piero Benvenuti, ESA/Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility,
Garching bei, Munchen, Germany
Towards a Virtual
Observatory: A NASA Perspective
Joseph H. Bredekamp, NASA Headquarters, Washington, USA
Panel Discussion:
International and Interdisciplinary issues, opportunities and
challenges in building a Virtual Observatory
Session Reporter Ethan Schreier, Hubble Space Telescope Science
Institute, Baltimore, MD
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