Google is Getting into the Astronomy Biz
With the advent of larger CCD arrays, improved image time cadence and faster computers, astronomers have been collecting more data than ever. Terabytes of data are being collected and stored from large, ground-based telescopes, space and planetary probes and space-based telescopes.
The challenge these days isn’t collecting the data, but storing, processing, searching and analyzing all of it. It is no longer possible for astronomers to sit next to telemetry screens watching images painstakingly painted on a computer monitor. Now, hundreds of thousands of images are streaming in to earth from all of our exploration craft and ground-based telescopes.
The problem of how to handle, process and analyze all of this data is only going to get worse, not better. In 2014, a new project, known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will see first light. It’s mission will be to take images every night (that’s the synoptic part) and will image objects that change or move rapidly, including supernovae and near-Earth asteroids.
The 8.4 meter telescope, located in Chile, will take images every 15 seconds and spew out over 30 to 50 terabytes of images PER NIGHT!
That’s a lot of data, so Google will be helping out. As usual, no one at Google will say HOW they are going to handle all of this data and make it promptly available, they just say they are on it.
OK. Well, that’s good then. I guess.
One thing Google will say is that the system they devise must continue working even if some of the systems are down. Fair enough.
The LSST Project will be privately funded, no governments, which means that the data aren’t proprietary. The LSST data will be publicly available to everyone who wants it: professional astronomers, students, you, me, everyone.
Hopefully, having Google involved in the dissemination of that data can serve as a model for other projects that serve large amounts of stuff to many people. I’m especially interested in the analysis tools they come up with. It would be very cool to go online and make astronomical discoveries or make light curves just by using those tools.
Making astronomical discoveries online has been done before by amateurs looking at LASCO C3 coronagraph data to discover comets.
Image Credit: LSST
Technorati Tags: LSST, night sky, observing, telescopes
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POSTED IN: telescopes
2 opinions for Google is Getting into the Astronomy Biz
Frederica
Mar 12, 2007 at 10:13 am
So… does that mean we all soon will be enjoying “Google Space”; after Google Earth ? I wouldn’t mind ! :D
Tony
Mar 13, 2007 at 1:10 am
LOL. Who knows what Google’s going to do, they won’t really say. They are a private partner in the LSST effort though, one of the few, so they have a financial interest in this stuff.
So, while I don’t think they’ll try to keep the data proprietary, you can be sure that the tools they implement to make the data usable will be.
I guess I really don’t care so long as the tools push the envelope a bit and further the development of data disemination technologies. We really need to be facing this issue of what to do with all the data we’re taking, not just in astronomy, but in all sciences.
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