Astronomy Research via the Internet
Dept. of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
Abstract
Small developing countries may not have a dark site with good seeing for an astronomical observatory or afford the financial commitment to setup and support such an facility. Much of astronomical research today is however done with remote observations, such as from telescopes in space or service observing at large facilities on the ground. Cutting edge astronomical research can now be done using low cost computers with a good Internet connection to get online access to astronomical, observations, journals and most recent preprints. E-mail allows fast easy collaboration between research scientists around the world. An international program with some short term collaborative visits, could data mine and publish results from available astronomical observations, for a fraction of the investment and cost of running even a small local observatory. Students who have been computer and software trained in such a program would also be more employable in the current job market. The Internet can reach you where ever you like to be and give you direct access to what ever you need for astronomical research.
The exponential growth of astronomical research in the 20th century, has left the developing nations far behind in contributions to the field. Pure science research in all non-theoretical fields has required very expensive technology which cannot be justified with no immediate practical benefit to the developing nation.
There is a tendency to assume that astronomers in developing countries need to limit themselves to do astronomy research using less expensive small telescopes. Many talks at this special session discuss many of the basic but useful astronomical observations being done at small observatories around the world.
Let me first state clearly to avoid being misunderstood that I am not in anyway doubting the role that small telescopes can contribute to Astronomical research or to fascinate students to study astronomy. Continuous monitoring of planets, comets, variable stars and other transient astronomical events benefit significantly from a global network of telescopes. Many developing nations could fill important gaps in such coverage. For example my home nation of Sri Lanka could fill the southernmost latitude between longitudes of South Africa and western Australia, north of Antarctica.
The astronomical research environment has however changed over last five years in many significant ways. The price of computers needed for data analysis and cost of online data storage has dropped ten fold. The amount of astronomical data available in online archives from both ground based and spaced based observations is growing exponentially. Submission of papers to most leading journals is done online. Practically all leading astronomy journals back to volume 1 are now archived at Astrophysics Data System ( ADS ). The latest preprints are also archived at astro-ph and updated daily.
The point I wish to make is that a on-site local telescope is now not need to start active research and education in astronomy. For example, Hubble Space Telescope observations ( HST ) are released after one year and images taken in parallel mode are made freely available on the Internet a day after the observations are taken. Everyone on the Internet has equal opportunity to make and publish discoveries from them.
Cutting edge astronomical research can therefore be done from any place in the world. All that is needed are low cost computers with a good Internet connection to get online access to astronomical, observations, journals and most recent preprints. Since the investment in Internet connectivity is now justified not only by research but by E-commerce it is simpler for developing countries to obtain financial aid to establish such network connectivity, which then help scientific research and the economy in many ways.
I will discuss below in order of increasing importance what I consider to be the main advantages doing astronomy research over Internet, pointing out the opportunities and limitations. Finally I will discuss as an example the situation in my home nation ``Sri Lanka'' where enthusiasm and spurts of investment in conventional astronomy, have has yet unfortunately not yielded any significant research progress.
Independent of Site
Astronomical observational sites with good seeing are rare. Urban growth and accompanying in light pollution make it increasingly more difficult to find a reasonable dark site. A remote site even if one exists leads to practical logistics of transport and accommodation. Access roads guest observer support are substantial additions to the cost. This has led to many small telescopes in developing countries being installed in bright urban areas and remaining practically useless for astronomical research.
However, the Internet can reach you where ever you like to be and give direct access to what ever you need for astronomical research. For example, Sir Arthur C Clarke who predicted global communications using geo-stationary satellites has chosen to make Sri Lanka his home. The Internet connects him to the rest of the global village. How many academics, particularly expatiates in all fields could be encouraged to return or spend a productive sabbatical in their developing home country if network access needed for efficient communications and research is setup. In the presence of truly global communications there is no need to continue to exile oneself in a foreign land.
Not dependent on Weather
Bad weather seems to always follow you even in good sites. The beauty of the solar corona watched with the naked-eye during a total eclipse of the Sun is not describable by words or recorded on film. It has to be seen to be appreciated. I was at the driest spot in the world, Atacama desert in Bolivia, to observe my first Total Eclipse of the Sun in November 1994. It rained the night before!
I agree there is clearly a vast difference in the experience of personal observations over seeing images in a book or getting digital data over the Internet. Even relatively bright Messier objects through a small telescope maybe a disappointment in comparison to seeing all those beautiful long exposure image processed photographs of them on the Internet :-) .
Cloud cover often dampen enthusiasm to continue regular observations in particularly for transient events. The consequent lack of observations could lead to a complete loss of productivity when trying to start an active research program.
However, serious quantitative astronomy research is now not done using observations taken at an eyepiece. Is there any difference if the observations come from the instruments on a local telescope or to your computer over the Internet from a telescope far away ?
An astronomy research program setup which includes the analysis of remote observations is obviously not dependent on the local weather and need not be interrupted even if temporarily disconnected from the Internet. No program needs to be data starved. There is far more astronomical data with free online access than is humanly possible to be looked at source.
No need for Expensive Instrumentation
Telescopes need to be equipped with more than a set of eye pieces for any observations to be used for quantitative astronomical research. Telescopes need special instrumentation such as image detectors and spectrograph. Some spectral regions (e.g., infrared) require expensive cryogenics. Investing in and maintaining expensive an observatory which is only useful only for astronomers can be unaffordable for a developing country.
All you need to get started on astronomy research over the Internet is a low cost personal computer and a link to the Internet. Most of the major analysis software packages are freely available. The development of software only requires skill, a compiler, and a time commitment unlike costly instrumentation.
Astronomy resources on the Internet change over time and the any detailed list would at most be a snapshot. In the appendix I list some of the major sites probably biased by my personal preference.
AstroWeb is an astronomical Internet Resources database which is maintained since 1994 by a small world-wide consortium of institutions and contains pointers to potentially relevant resources available via Internet. There are a number of mirrors of this site around the globe. It is a good starting place to find anything related with astronomy. It provides searchable links to find telescope time applications, Data centers with astronomy archives, online astronomy journals, observation analysis software, astronomy conference information etc. It is not based on indexing automated downloads of web-sites. It is a moderated database which ensures that you don't need to search through lot of unimportant URL's which happened to match search keywords to find the most useful sites which match your query. It depends on authors to submit the site and therefore if you have setup an Internet web site associated with astronomy then you should add it online to this database. Another advantage of this site is that an automated Tcl script checks the validity of the links everyday to warn users of any that are broken.
Remote Observing
Service observations are now common since it is a more efficient way to time share a large telescope facility. With space-based telescopes there is no choice. As instrumentation becomes more complex a local expert is in any case needed to set them up. Most often the required observations can easily be predefined precisely with exposure times or signal required. Telescope floor decisions are typically done to use available time slot often degraded by weather to optimize which observations are taken. This is not the case for service observing which are done in a queue whenever the weather, seeing and photometric conditions required for each program are satisfied. There is also no need for costly and time consuming travel to an observatory often returning with no data because of bad weather. If active interaction is important you can even remote observe over the Internet. This will even be during the day if using a telescope half way across the world.
For example, scientists of any nationality or affiliation may submit NASA Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) proposals. Restrictions are only for funding requests. All you need is to submit excellent observational proposals over the Internet and win the telescope time required. For other facilities all one needs is at most a collaboration with an observer with access to that telescope. The observations are made as requested and the data are sent by tape or obtained over the Internet.
Rapid decrease in cost of Computers
Twenty years ago astronomical data analysis was done on large VAX/VMS computers which cost over US$100K. Only large departments or universities as a whole could afford them. Users shared time on this central computer via terminals. They were not affordable in most developing nations without significant grants. Ten years ago the same power was available SUN/UNIX workstations which cost over US$10K, but started to become personal desk-top units. Today personal computers are more than 10 times powerful cost under US$1K. Computer hard disk space is also important for astronomy data analysis. 10 years ago it cost over US$2K per GB. Today disk storage costs under US$0.01K per GB.
Increasingly in many academic environments, free shareware UNIX operating system known as LINUX has enabled home market personal computers to replace the more costly workstations without sacrificing software portability, numerical computing power or operational stability.
Computers depreciate in value very fast. So investment in computer and data storage needs must be done only as the research program grows. The replacement value of a computer lab has half-life of under 2-years. A computer lab setup 5 years ago would probably be of no residual value. In contrast a telescope will in principle still retain its value with a operational life time of probably over 50 years if it is setup and used in a good site.
However, computer costs have dropped so much that they are now small compared to operational costs such as salary, and travel. The cost of computers and disk storage are clearly not limiting factors in setting up of a computer lab for astronomical research.
Good Internet connectivity is also becoming affordable although it is still a non-negligible cost from a developing nation. I read on the web that connectivity with T1 bandwidth (1.5Mbits/sec) costs about $1000/- per month in US and is sufficient for only about 75 users. Although telecoms may charge ten times this figure, in reality it is no more expensive to an government of a developing nation.
Common Research Facilities
The setup of Computer facilities and Internet connectivity are common to most fields of scientific research. It is now also used by E-commerce and the public at large. This is a very important consideration when proposing to start any fundamental Science research like astronomy from developing countries where everything needs to be related to practical needs of the country. Astronomy is clearly useful to develop the intellectual environment but we must recognize it is a luxury which is probably difficult to justify funding independently.
Computers also serve both analysis of observations and theoretical studies. E-mail allows easy collaboration with research scientists around the world. Voice and even video phone calls over the Internet bring added possibilities for fast and inexpensive communication. However for active research, one need to be able to get fast response during working hour for remote interactive login and have the ability to transfer of order 100MB or more on demand - without unreasonable time delays. Developing nations need to negotiate with funding agencies to obtain seed money to setup collaborative efforts for analysis of observations and data mining.
Job Security for Students
A PhD in astronomy does not ensure a research or teaching position. In reality many good Post-Doc even in the west need to switch to non-astronomy jobs. Other than as an indicator of a level of intellectual maturity, expertise in pure astronomy has no practical applications in commercial industry. Students familiar with computer data analysis and the Internet, however find it much simpler to find gainful employment. The growth of the Internet is so rapid that for a long time there will ample Internet related Jobs. The type of expertise one gains while doing research is important. A Bachelors degree with good Computer skills is probably more employable than a PhD in astronomy without advanced computer capabilities.
Extensive online Archives of Journals.
The Internet has more astronomy journals online than most major university libraries including Carnegie Mellon. Astronomy journals back to the first issue 1 are now archived digitally at Astrophysics Data System ( ADS ) at with mirror sites around the globe.
No longer do you need to suffer months of delay waiting for journals posted by sea-mail to arrive, because of excessive air-mail cost. Everyone on the Internet can see publications at the same time. Electronic submission of papers to practically most journals reduces delays and postage costs in the referee and publication process. It has also minimized effort needed for proof corrections since the submitted manuscripts in LaTex or other standard word processor format are directly translated to the format needed for publication.
The latest Preprints are also archived at ( astro-ph ) and updated daily. New abstracts are sent out by E-mail Since most astronomers now read the latest papers from this free service it has almost replaced the costly distribution of preprints. Submission to the astro-ph server is now considered an essential part publication to ensure it will come to the attention of the astronomy research community.
However, it is important to negotiate with the online journal publishers to allow access to recent online editions from developing nations without needing institutions to subscribe to the expensive printed copy. Institutions should also have access to commercial products such as the ISI's ``Web of Science'', a journal article data base that covers more than 5300 major journals in the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, technology, and medicine.
Leading Instruments and Telescopes
Observations taken with the leading instruments like on the Hubble Space telescopes and large ground based national facilities can be down loaded on the Internet. A recent National Academy of Science report, Astronomy and Astrophysics in the new millennium, discusses a Virtual Observatory as an very important initiative in astronomy over the next decade. A digital sky in all wavelengths based on the massive data sets being created with tools to explore the data base.
All Space based missions and most large ground based observatories maintain a complete data archive of observations. Almost all HST observations are put in the public domain after one year. However you are not limited to astronomical observations which have been milked for the best science. Pure Parallel observations using the HST are put online the day after observation free for an astronomer from anywhere in CyberSpace to analyze.
Archived data available Freely
Large ground based and space based surveys and individual observations are generating more data than most programs can look at except for the very specific application for which they were taken. Most of these observations have lot more invaluable astronomical information if one has the time to look more carefully for different applications.
There is a lot of archived data online with free Internet access much of which have not been analyzed in detail, and some have not even been looked at in detail due to lack of sufficient funding.
For example, the first Gravitational lens to be discovered by the Hubble Space telescope was found by us as a part of the Medium Deep Survey ( MDS ) on archival data (Ratnatunga et.al. 1995), after the observations were released to the public one years after they were taken. The only advantage that the MDS group had was the software we had developed to automatically handle the some aspects of the data reduction. Software like this could be easily obtained in collaboration or even developed without large investment. However much of our discovery was that in the pipeline of automated analysis we included in addition a careful visual inspection of the observations. The trained human eye is still far better than an software in picking out the interesting and unusual objects, and far less of that is done now than need. A lapse that any developing country properly connected to the Internet can exploit.
There are lots of opportunity to develop programs for data mining. It is much less expensive than data acquisition and the credit of discovery is with the person who publishes the results not with the person who took the observation. There are probably lots of hidden serendipitous discoveries to be made on Space based observations made at astronomical cost.
Astronomical research in Sri Lanka is probably typical of many developing countries. I use it as an example why like many other developing nations it could develop more by the Internet than with a small telescope. I have observed first hand its attempts to develop in astronomy for over 30 years.
The absence of astronomical research in Lanka is NOT as Gehrerls (1988) who in his review or Sri Lanka's Telescope suggested I quote ``Could it be that inquiry into our origins has little appeal to Buddhists ?''. The questioning authority and status quo is a cornerstone of Buddhism as given so eloquently in the Kalama Sutta This was the eastern experience of the Renaissance and the cultural attitudes, such as a willingness to confront authority and reject religion which Snowden (2000) feels is now lacking in Lanka. In any case only a minute fraction of the population in the West or the East are associated with research in fundamental Science such as astronomy, the mind-set of the current population at large is irrelevant to the establishment of astronomy research program. For example, 47 percent of American--and a quarter of college graduates--believe humans did not evolve, but were created by God a few thousand years ago, and yet US is the world's leading scientific nation. (MacKenzie 2000).
Eastern Civilization in particular has had an interest in the cosmos from ancient times. They accepted the vastness of space and time while religious belief in the west adopted a geocentric universe created 6000 years ago. Hindoos for example believed in a cyclic universe with a period of 7.3 billion years. I quote from the 1822 book ``Hindoostan'' edited by Frederic Shoberl ``A learned Bramin laughed, on being told that we Europeans reckon only about six thousand years since the creation of the world, and pointing to an old man with a long beard, asked if it was possible to believe that he was born but the preceding day.''
Astronomical research in Lanka dates back to the early 1900's when Major P. B. Molesworth (1867-1906) ordered himself a 12.5 inch photographically equipped Newtonian reflector from George Calver. He housed it in a observatory in Trincomalee and did significant research on Jupiter which he published in the Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (Molesworth 1905). The telescope was moved after his death to Colombo. I had the opportunity to use this telescope when attending the University of Ceylon. A small 4-inch Telescope gifted to Royal College which I attended had got me interested in astronomy. I was also encouraged by regular meeting of the Ceylon Astronomical Association founded in 1959 with Arthur Clarke as Patron. He has contributed very positively to encouraging an interest in Astronomy in Sri Lanka. A 10 inch telescope was setup by Herschel Gunawardena at the Colombo Observatory. There was clearly sufficient interest in Astronomy in Lanka to initiate serious amateur observations and motivate a few of us to take astronomy up as a career, even 25 years ago.
I also know of many astronomers with special interest in Sri Lanka. In 1975, Prof. Tom Geherals of the University of Arizona who had been enchanted by Ceylon in 1945, offered a gift of a 70-inch telescope Mirror (Geheral 1984). Sufficient local interest in the project was very wisely required to build the rest. With no good site to ensure a useful return on the required investment, it never happened. Sites which in the dry zone were politically unsafe at that time and and even more so today since it is that part of the country which is currently in a state of civil war. Sites of high altitude in the wet zone had over 75% of the days cloudy.
In the mid 1980's the growth of instant electronic communication started opening the way for doing research over the Internet as we know it today. Interest of Lankans in this new medium of communication was simulated by a need for News about Sri Lanka which was hardly covered in the Foreign press. An informal E-mail group SLnet was formed in 1988 to exchange news, and Lankans were among the first dozen countries to form a Usenet group soc.culture.sri-lanka in 1989. A non-profit organization LAcNet was formed in 1991 which maintained a dial-up E-mail service till Lanka was connected directly to the Internet in 1995. One of the primary aims of this organization is to promote academic collaboration over the Internet between students in Lanka and Lankan Scientist overseas. In 1991/92 I spent a year sabbatical at the Institute for Fundamental Studies (IFS) in Kandy Sri Lanka exploring the possibility of doing astronomical research from Lanka aided by the Internet which still need to be funded properly.
Around the same time an offer of a 18-inch telescope was made to IFS from Japan. Being the only professional astronomer resident in the island at that time I tried in wane to negotiate the most of the aid to be used to setup a Internet connection into Lanka and computer lab which could be used for active astronomical research. A small mobile telescope which even upto 14-inch is an off-the-shelf item and relatively inexpensive would have been more useful to serve the need to fascinate students to study astronomy. Although I stalled the telescope project, it restarted after I left Sri Lanka. A 18-inch telescope gifted by Japan was inaugurated at the UN/ESA Workshop on Basic Space Science, held in Colombo in Jan 1996. It was equipped with a photometer which is useless at the brightly lit urban site. More recently a CCD was gifted, the images from which will probably suffer from the instability of the telescope mounted on the 4th floor of a building to trucks on the nearby highway.
It remains as I predicted practically unused and as far as I know used only as an exhibit for visiting school kids. It continues to waste for maintenance and supervision about US$5K per year of very limited resources available for astronomy. For more details see article by Michael Snowden (Snowden 2000). Back in 1964 Sri Lanka government using a gift from East Germany setup a Zeis Planetarium as a part of an Industrial Exhibition. For a long time that was considered by many politicians as funding the needs of astronomical research. The new ``white elephant'' will similarly hurt more than help any future effort to invest in needs of astronomical research in Lanka.
The 18-inch telescope has served no purpose for astronomical research or education in Lanka not entirely due to a lack of interest. The host institution beau-crazy, with no motivation to use it, does not even allow access to students from the nearby university or to local amateurs since the telescope is listed as costing $300K of aid to Lanka. A active amateur group located nearby at the Institute for Integral Education run by Father Mervyn Fernando could be learning on this instrument. It is sadly ironic they got instead a gift of a 8-inch telescope from George Coyne, the director of the Vatican Observatory. The ability for that group to use a smaller telescope more frequently is helped by the fact it can be moved to a site reasonable for observation.
Personal computers are now freely available in Sri Lanka at reasonable cost. Internet bandwidth is what is most lacking. Future plans are for a 0.5Mbit line which seems clearly inadequate for supporting a user community of very much more than 25 users. The academic bandwidth into the whole country is less than what would be considered acceptable even for a small university in the US.
A small Telescope installed in a bright urban setting may not the be best way to develop an small astronomy research program in a developing nation. A decision to setup such an instrument needs to be based on the availability of reasonable site, and the recommendations of local astronomers with expertise in both astronomy and the aspirations of the local user community.
In the global village we now live in, international collaborations are practical if the developing nation is properly networked. The Internet also gives you access to enormous data archives with the latest observations for quantitative analysis with computer systems which are now not very expensive. It is truly an optimum time for any developing nation interested in astronomy research to seriously consider doing it via the Internet.
Astronomical research in Sri Lanka is probably typical of many developing countries. Although there is a strong amateur astronomy interest in the country there are less than a dozen Lankans are professional astronomers all of them are doing research outside Lanka. Could they or more recent graduates be attracted back. I think this is a clear possibility if the infrastructure need for research is setup in Lanka. Linking Lanka to the Internet with a SuperHighway is not the only need, but it is clearly the minimum before one can consider the possibility of active research seriously.
Acknowledgments I wish thank the organizing committee for inviting me to give this contribution and for the financial support in attending the 24th IAU general assembly in Manchester, UK.
I give below a sampling of the major Internet sites with URL's of astronomical databases. A more complete and current list could be obtained from AstroWeb .
Centre de Donnes astronomiques de Strasbourg ( CDS ) which hosts Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data ( SIMBAD ) an astronomical database provides basic data, cross-identifications and bibliography for currently about 3 million astronomical objects outside the solar system.
VizieR ( @ CDS ) provides on line, a library of computer-readable astronomical catalogues and data tables with documentation. It is mirrored in Astronomy Data Centers in USA (@ ADC ), Japan ( @ ADAC ), and India ( @ IUCAA ).
High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center ( HEASARC ). A source of gamma-ray, X-ray, and extreme ultraviolet observations of cosmic sources with direct links associated support facilities. It hosts a Virtual Observatory ( SkyView ) for generating images of any part of the sky at wavelengths in all regimes from Radio to Gamma-Rays.
The Hubble Data Archive ( HDA ) which also supports a Multi-mission Archive ( MAST ) with a variety of astronomical data archives, with focus in the optical, ultraviolet, and near-infrared parts of the spectrum.
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center ( IPAC ) maintain infrared data archives and access tools and hosts the NASA Extra-galactic Database ( NED ) with over 3 million objects and 150 thousand red-shifts.
Planetary Data System ( PDS ) archives digital data from past and present NASA planetary missions, astronomical observations, and laboratory measurements. All data is classified Technology and Software Publicly Available (TSPA) to be exported outside the United States.
Canadian Astronomy Data Center ( CADC ) which host the archive observations since 1990 from the Canada-France-Hawaii 4-meter Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, ( CFHT ). Links are provided to similar archives setup at many major ground-based observatories worldwide using CADC software and expertise.
Sloan Digital Sky Survey ( SDSS ) which will systematically map one fourth of the sky to probe the large-scale structure of the universe. The survey will produce a catalog of roughly 100 million objects, with red-shifts to more than a million galaxies and quasars.
Astrophysics Data System ( ADS ) A NASA-funded Abstract Service which provides access to over two million astronomy related abstracts which can be searched by author, title, object name, or keywords. It has also made agreements with publishes of astronomical journals to provide links to scanned images of over 40,000 articles appearing in most of the major astronomical journals and over 3 years old.
Physics e-Print archive ( XXX ) which includes astrophysics (astro-ph). Mirror sites are being established all over the world. Replacing postal distribution of preprints.
AAS job Register ( AAS ) A monthly posting of worldwide astronomy related jobs maintained by the American Astronomical Society.
Digitized Sky Survey ( DSS ) This comprises a set of all-sky photographic surveys conducted with the Palomar and UK 48-inch Schmidt telescopes and scanned using a PDS microdensitometer to scale of about 1.0 to 1.7 arcseconds per pixel.
Global Network of Astronomical Telescopes ( GNAT ) A non-profit organization dedicated as an information source for all those interested in research and education using relatively small astronomical telescopes.
International Dark-Sky Association ( IDA ) A non-profit organization with a goal to stopping the adverse environmental impact of light pollution and space debris through education about the value and effectiveness of quality nighttime lighting.
International Astronomical Union ( IAU ) Announcements, Information bulletin and services.
View-graphs of this talk as given on 2000 August 15th in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Lakdiva homepage.