Computing and Modern Astronomy: The Universe at your Fingertips!

Brian R. Kent Jansky Fellow, NRAOhttp://www.cv.nrao.edu/~bkent/

What do these names have in common?

• Ptolemy• Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi• Johann Bayer• John Flamsteed• Charles Messier• J.L.E. Dreyer and William and John Herschel• Henry Draper and Edward Pickering• Annie Jump Cannon• Peter Nillson• Halton Arp• NRAO Scientists

CATALOGS!

Astronomers catalog everything they observe…

Molecular Gas 0.00016

HI + He I 0.00062

Stellar Objects 0.0027

Intracluster Plasma 0.0018

Other (0.005)

Dark Matter (0.23)

Dark Energy (0.72)

Warm IG Plasma0.040

Baryons (0.045)

Makeup of the Universe

Data compiled from Fukugita and Peebles 2004

Most of the baryons are in the IGM…

Baryons

• Stars• Nebulae• Extrasolar Planets• Pulsars• Masers• Dust• Spectral lines (hydrogen and molecules)• Radio Sources• Galaxies and Quasars• Gamma-Ray Bursts• Fluctuations leftover from the Big Bang

Many of these are cataloged and studied with NRAO facilities!

What information do astronomers gather?

As much as they can…

Physical Properties• Highly accurate positions

(astrometry)• Motion (kinematics)• Dynamics (Rotations)• Distances • Sizes (directly or through timing)• Masses• Chemical Composition

(spectroscopy)

What continues to be a major driver in astronomical discoveries?

Computers and Technology!

What are the computers gathering? Astronomy is all about the extremes

• ALMA – 16,000 million million calculations PER SECOND!

• GBT GUPPI – 40.96 millionths of a second sampling time

• SDSS – over 1 million galaxies and quasars

• NVSS – over 1.7 million radio sources• 2MASS – 1.6 million resolved sources

Data source: Historical Notes about the Cost of Hard Drives (2009)

Data source: Historical Notes about the Cost of Hard Drives (2009)

Jorden 2008 (Astrophysics Detector Workshops)

Abazajian et al 2009 and the SDSS Survey

Brogan et al. 2009 arXiv:0909.5256v1

So how can YOU look at the data?

Using an astronomy data service

Thanks and Acknowledgements• Brent Tully / Rick Fisher• NASA• Pat Smiley and the NRAO Image Archive• WMAP Collaboration• Carilli et al.• Schlegel et al.• Braatz et al.• Condon, Cotton, Perley et al.• Australia Telescope National Facility• NASA Public Outreach• HST, Bahcall, Disney, et al. and NASA• Thilker & Braun et al.• Chatterjee et al.• IPAC / Spitzer Space Telescope• John Stoke, Mark Adams, Laurie Clark, and the NRAO gang

Now Google Sky…