Transcript Astrophysical Virtual Observatory and the EURO-VO

Astrophysical Virtual
Observatory and the EURO-VO
Paolo Padovani
Head, ESO Virtual Observatory
Systems Department
EURO-VO Facility Centre Scientist
• The Virtual Observatory
• Europe and the VO: the Astrophysical Virtual Observatory and
the EURO-VO
Astronomy in the XXI century
Radical changes are needed!
 Huge surveys: 100M sources at <3k spectra/night  >100
yr!
 Ever fainter sources, routinely surpassing the identification
limits of 8 - 10m telescopes (Rmag ≈ 25)
 Huge data collections: e.g., downloading Sloan Digital Sky
Survey (SDSS) DR3 (~ 1/2 of total) images (6 Tb) 
~
2.3 months at 1 Mb/s (ESO’s speed); catalogs (2.3 Tb) 
~ 1 month. On DVDs  ~ 1,300 of them. And analysis??
(similar size for MACHO, 2MASS etc …)
 Ever increasing amount of data: e.g., ESO archive: x 100
increase in next 7 yrs to 1,000 Tbytes
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The solution:
Virtual Observatory
 An innovative, evolving system, which takes advantage of
astronomical data explosion
 It will allow users to interrogate multiple data centres in a seamless
and transparent way and to utilize at best astronomical data
 Data analysis tools (in-situ) and models will be made more
accessible
 It will allow new SCIENCE by moving Astronomy beyond era of
“classical” identification by combining all available information:
data mining (increase obs. efficiency) + statistical identification
(less need for spectra)
 Good communication  common language! Definition and adoption
of VO standards and protocols within the International Virtual
Observatory Alliance (IVOA: http://ivoa.net)
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AVO
 Astrophysical Virtual Observatory Project: 5 M€, R&D on
scientific requirements and technology for building the VO in
Europe, 50% funded by European Community (Fifth
Framework Programme [FP5])
 Phase A, 2001 - 2004/5 (http://www.euro-vo.org)
 Driven by strategy of scientific VO annual demonstrations
 Science Working Group established to provide scientific advice
to AVO project
 Project completed; now EURO-VO
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AVO’s Main
Achievements
 Three science demonstrations
 First refereed astronomical paper enabled via end-to-end use of VO
tools and systems: “Discovery of optically faint obscured quasars
with Virtual Observatory tools”, Padovani, Allen, Rosati, & Walton,
2004, A&A, 424, 545
ESA/ESO press release May 28 2004
 New VO tools: the AVO prototype can be used NOW for the day-today work of astronomers; Java application
(http://www.euro-vo.org/twiki/bin/view/Avo/SwgDownload)
 A Science Reference Mission
 Founding member of IVOA
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The Next Step
 European Virtual Observatory (EURO-VO) Project: a
program to build the Virtual Observatory in Europe
 Eight partners: ESO & ESA, plus six national nodes:
French VO, GAVO (Germany), INAF (Italy), NOVA
(Netherlands), Spanish VO, and ASTROGRID (UK)
 Total planned EURO-VO resources ~60 person-years
(2005 - 2008), ~ 3 more than AVO
 Three components
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An alliance of European
data centres who will
populate the EURO-VO
with data, provide the
physical storage and
computational fabric and
who will publish data,
An operational
metadata and services
to
organization,
that provides
the EURO-VO using
the VO
EURO-VO with a
technologies
persistent, centralized
registry for resources,
standards and certification
mechanisms as well as
community support for VO
technology take-up and
scientific programs
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A distributed organization
that coordinates a set of
research and development
projects on the
advancement of VO
technology, systems and
tools in response to
scientific and community
requirements
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EURO-VO Startup
VOTC funded (VO-TECH)
VOFC and DCA activities already started with help
from OPTICON, RADIONET, ESO and ESA
 DCA board meetings held (Dec. 2004 & Jun. 2005)
 EURO-VO workshop (ESO June 2005) first VOFC
activity
 EURO-VO MOU to be signed in July 2005 (2005 2008)


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VO-TECH
 A VO-TC project to complete the technical work necessary to
build the EURO-VO
 6.6 M€ from EC [FP6], 12 FTEs (+12 from partners) for 3 yrs;
VO development at ASTROGRID (Edinburgh, Leicester, &
Cambridge), ESO, French VO, and INAF (Italy)
 Start: April 1st 2005
 Four broad areas (Design Studies):




Infrastructure (Lead: Leicester)
New User Tools (Lead: ESO)
Resource Discovery (Lead: French VO)
Data Exploration (Lead: Edinburgh)
 Six month sub-projects
 Input: EURO-VO Science Advisory Committee, partners, AVO
Science Reference Mission, AVO Science Working Group
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EURO-VO and the
Community
 AVO has reached out to the European astronomical
community mostly through the SWG, plus papers and
articles (ESO Messenger, ST-ECF & EAS Newsletters)
 EURO-VO has reached out to the data providers through
a dedicated workshop at ESO (June 27 - July 1)
 EURO-VO will get community input through the SAC
 We have also started having a presence at JENAM
meetings, to contact directly (and get feedback from)
astronomers
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Summary
• The Virtual Observatory will make handling and
manipulating astronomical data and tools residing at
various locations around the world much easier than
it is now
• The Virtual Observatory is a science driver!
• The AVO project has produced REAL science tools,
which can be (and are!) used for astronomical
research
• The EURO-VO will now make the VO in Europe a
(non-virtual!) reality
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