The Virtual Observatory Europe and the VO: the 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

July 6, 2005P. Padovani, JENAM Astronomy in the XXI century Radical changes are needed!  Huge surveys: 100M sources at 100 yr!  Ever fainter sources, routinely surpassing the identification limits of m telescopes (R mag ≈ 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

July 6, 2005P. Padovani, JENAM 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:

July 6, 2005P. Padovani, JENAM

July 6, 2005P. Padovani, JENAM 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, /5 (  Driven by strategy of scientific VO annual demonstrations  Science Working Group established to provide scientific advice to AVO project  Project completed; now EURO-VO

July 6, 2005P. Padovani, JENAM 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  New VO tools: the AVO prototype can be used NOW for the day-to- day work of astronomers; Java application (  A Science Reference Mission  Founding member of IVOA

July 6, 2005P. Padovani, JENAM 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 ( ), ~ 3 more than AVO  Three components

July 6, 2005P. Padovani, JENAM 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, metadata and services to the EURO-VO using VO technologies 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 An operational organization, that provides the EURO-VO with a persistent, centralized registry for resources, standards and certification mechanisms as well as community support for VO technology take-up and scientific programs

July 6, 2005P. Padovani, JENAM 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 & Jun. 2005) EURO-VO workshop (ESO June 2005) first VOFC activity  EURO-VO MOU to be signed in July 2005 ( )

July 6, 2005P. Padovani, JENAM 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

July 6, 2005P. Padovani, JENAM 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

July 6, 2005P. Padovani, JENAM 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