Astronomy And Cloud Computing

As much as Astronomy has expanded, the Field has been slow to integrate Cloud Computing.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction in Chile, will become the First Astronomical Institution of its size to adopt a Cloud-based Data Facility.

When the Observatory starts up in 2024, the Data its Telescope captures will become available as part of the Legacy Survey of Space and time (LSST) Project, which will create a Catalogue Thousands of Times Larger than any previous Survey of the Night Sky.

Past Surveys were almost always Downloaded and Stored Locally, which made it Hard for Astronomers to Access each other's work.

We are making a map of the full sky, says Hsin-Fang Chiang, a Member of the Rubin's Data Management Team. And in the process, they are building a huge data set that's going to be useful for many different kinds of science in astronomy.

Although Chiang's PhD is in Astronomy, her initial Research had nothing to do with the Survey. Years later, she got a chance to be involved, thanks to the sheer size of the Project. She's proud that her work could improve the way Scientists Collaborate.

The 10-year Project will deliver a 500-petabyte Set of Data and Images to the Cloud, to Help Astronomers answer Questions about the Structureand Evolution of the Universe.

for each position in the sky, we'll have more than 800 images there. You could even see what happened in the past. so especially for supernovas or things that change a lot, then that's very interesting.. says Chiang.

The Rubin Observatory will Process and Store 20 Terabytes of Data every Night as it maps the Milky Way and places beyond. Astronomers affiliated with the Project, will be able to Access and analyze that Data from anywhere via a Web Browser.

Eventually, the Images the Telescope takes every night will be converted into an Online Database of Stars, Galaxies, and other Celestial bodies.










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