Initiative in Innovative Computing @ Harvard
and
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Google Sky Seminars - 4pm and 8pm
Wednesday, April 9, 2008; 4:00pm
60 Oxford Street, Room 330
Event parking in the 52 Oxford Street Garage.
Ryan Scranton, Google Sky Team
Seminar Title: Hunting for Needles in Massive Astronomical Data Streams
Abstract:
Over the last decade astronomy has become a progressively more data
intensive science with large area surveys such as the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey providing data sets in excess of 200 million sources and
covering many thousands of square degrees. This data rate will
continue to increase as we move into the next decade with surveys
such as PanSTARRS and LSST mapping the sky every three nights. The
many science opportunities these surveys enable, from characterizing
the nature of dark energy to searching for potentially hazardous
asteroids, come with an associated challenge. How do we find unusual
sources within massive Terabyte data streams where small errors in
the classification of sources can swamp any intrinsic signature. In
this talk I will discuss a number of techniques for hunting for
needles within the haystack of astronomical data. From searching for
supernovae within spectral surveys to searching for moving sources to
looking for the one in a million event I will describe how we can
make these challenges computationally efficient, what remains to be
done and how this is a very fertile area for the collaboration
between computer science, statistics and astrophysics.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008; 8:00pm
Emerson Hall, Room 105
Event parking in the Broadway Street Garage.
Andrew Connolly, Google Sky Team
Seminar Title: Inside Google Sky
Abstract:
In August 2007, Google launched Sky in Google Earth, the first
application to provide a seamless view of the night sky using images
from the largest, optical wide-field imaging surveys. From exploring
the distribution of stars in the Milky Way to viewing the formation
of the first galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field; from images of
galaxies at ultraviolet wavelengths to a view of the far-infrared and
radio sky, Google Sky provides users with a framework to communicate
and share ideas about astronomy. Like Google Earth, Sky is a dynamic
environment, combining new imagery and features which can be tailored
to different needs (whether a professional or amateur astronomer). In
this talk we will discuss how Sky came about, the technologies it
uses for sharing information between people distributed across the
world and we will demonstrate some of the latest additions and
features that have been developed by a growing Google Sky community.
Upcoming IIC Seminars:
Continue to stay up to date with our IIC Seminar Schedule.
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