The explosion of digital data in volume and complexity available through internet has\u00a0driven a revolution in the way to handle large flows of information. This challenge has\u00a0developed into new opportunities in many domains like health, transport, security,\u00a0tourism, or e-commerce, with a blooming of new applications. Computers changed the\u00a0way to do business few decades ago and the new challenge is to exploit large and\u00a0diverse amounts of data. In fact, we refer to Big Data when the volume itself becomes\u00a0part of the problem, when available techniques are not efficient enough. Scientific\u00a0research in general, and Astronomy in particular, should of course benefit of the new\u00a0data handling tools, like it did with computers before, and, e.g., deep learning, an\u00a0active research area in machine learning and paIern recognition, offers excellent\u00a0opportunities.<\/p>\n
Astronomy is indeed a paradigm case for Big Data science. The continuing development\u00a0of ground and space-based observatories, including large sky surveys, brings\u00a0Astronomy to the Big Data era. Gaia or Euclid are examples in space but new groundbased\u00a0projects, like LSST or SKA, will need the new tools even more. Means and\u00a0methodologies to do research with these facilities will have, no doubt, to be evaluated.<\/p>\n
Young astronomers will be more and more involved in the use and development of Big\u00a0Data science for their research, not only mining data bases to get answers, but also\u00a0producing complex simulations or even finding out new questions by recognising\u00a0unexpected paIerns in the data, in other words, moving from a model-driven to adata-driven approach. Moreover, the traditional way of asking for observing time to\u00a0investigate specific targets will also be drastically modified.<\/p>\n
The purpose of this ISSI Forum is to convene a number of experts in the use of Big Data\u00a0science for Astronomy with the aim of reflecting on the benefits and challenges of this\u00a0new research tool.<\/p>\n
February 5, 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The explosion of digital data in volume and complexity available through internet has\u00a0driven a revolution in the way to handle large flows of information. This challenge has\u00a0developed into new opportunities in many domains like health, transport, security,\u00a0tourism, or e-commerce, with … Continue reading