The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. The Virtual Observatory Enrique Solano Spanish VO Principal Investigator LAEX-CAB (INTA-CSIC)
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. Outline Why do we need Virtual Observatories? Are they operational yet? Who is behind them?
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. Virtual Observatories: The goal Efficient management of the information available in astronomical archives. … BUT …accessing to on-line resources through high capacity networks is almost a daily task for most of the astronomers… So, what else is needed?
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. A real-life example: “I want to get all what is known about Vega” Finding the pieces: results Many unrefereed sources
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. A real-life example: “I want to get all what is known about Vega” Finding the pieces (II) But… is there anything else out there? –Need of astronomical “yellow pages” VO makes the discovery process more efficient and reliable thanks to Registries.
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. A real-life example: “I want to get all what is known about Vega” Gathering the pieces Astronomers need to learn about different user interfaces, access and download procedures. Tedious, inefficient and painful task.
Without VO astronomer archive 1 survey 2 survey 1 archive 2 service 1 archive 3 service 2 survey 3 service 3 n services, n interfaces
With VO astronomer archive 1 survey 2 survey 1 archive 2 service 1 archive 3 service 2 survey 3 service 3 n services, “1” interface VO
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. A real-life example: “I want to get all what is known about Vega” Putting the pieces together
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. The situation is getting worse as astronomical data is growing exponentially Large area surveys: future Paranal. Comissioning TB/yr Cerro Pachón. First light PB/yr Full operation: PB/yr
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. The situation is getting worse as astronomical data is growing exponentially
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. Outline Why do we need Virtual Observatories? Are they operational yet? Who is behind them?:.
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. Std s Tools Science Agree and build standards. Uptake of standards by the data services. The VO approach
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. VO Tools Interactive graphical viewer and editor for tabular data. Interactive sky atlas. Spectral analysis tools. Std s Tools Science
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. VO Tools Alignment, rotation, scale- related issues are tackled in a transparent way for the user. Remote data as if it was local.
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. VO Science Std s Tools Science
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. Science that benefits from VO Multiwavelength astronomy. Identification of rare/exotic objects
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. Outline Why do we need Virtual Observatories? Are they operational yet? Who is behind them?
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. IVOA members
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. The Spanish VO Aims: Aims: Coordination of the VO-activities of the Spanish institutes. Contact-point for the international VO-projects. Aims: Aims: Coordination of the VO-activities of the Spanish institutes. Contact-point for the international VO-projects. Member of IVOA since June Member of IVOA since June Structure: Structure: 9 FTEs at LAEX (the core of the SVO). Network at national level of (almost) 100 people. Structure: Structure: 9 FTEs at LAEX (the core of the SVO). Network at national level of (almost) 100 people.
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. AyA , AyA AyA , AyA AyA E, AyA AyA E, AyA AyA , AyA AyA , AyA AyA E, AyA AyA E, AyA The funding sources
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. SVO: Objectives Construction of a community of science users: -Scientific Workshops. -Support to VO science programmes -Production of on-line tutorials -This school Development of IVOA standards and services Support to data publishing in the VO Education and Outreach activities.
The Virtual ObservatorySVO School, October 2009 E. Solano. Summary The VO provides new ways to discover, access, and analyze data from astronomical data collections worldwide. All major data centers provide VO- compatible interfaces to their data. New and/or more efficient science. VO Science is already a reality.