Sources of Astronomical Data

Abstract

Astronomy in recent past has developed a lot with the launch of several missions like GALEX (Galaxy Evolution Explorer), Kepler Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope (HST), etc. through which terabytes of data are available for preservation. This increasing proportionality of huge data demands data access efficiency. The implication of the above statement is important in a sense that most of the astrophysical phenomena are being observed in terms of light intensity as a function of wavelength or frequency which are snapshots of experiments which cannot be repeated as such. So one can easily understand why every single observation needs to be preserved. Thus, on the one hand, it requires the advent of more sophisticated observing instruments and sophisticated data management systems are to be developed, on the other hand, to complement the above challenge. With the above point in view astronomers have developed several Virtual data archives like SDSS (Sloan digital sky survey), MAST (Multi mission archive at STSCI), EXOSAT (European X-ray observatory Satellite), CGRO (Compton Gamma Ray Observatory), GALEX, Vizier, EDD, LEDA, HETE-2 (High Energy Transient Explorer), Chandra, Swift, ROSAT (Rontgen Satellite), WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe), NED (NASA Extragalactic Data base), PDSC (Planetary Data System) etc. and in the making of future missions like ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array), SKA (Square Kilometer Array) in 2025, etc.