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Some transformative impacts of
computer science on astronomy
Roger F Malina
Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille
Provence (OAMP)
President Leonardo/OLATS: Observatoire
Leonardo des Arts et Technosciences
Three areas
• Virtual Observatories
– Data paid for by tax payers is public
– Few astronomers now take their own data
• Scientific Simulation
– The Simulation is the Theory
• Scientific Visualisation
– Most data is mediated by computerised instruments
– How to make data ‘intimate”
The Hubble Deep Field
Virtual Observatories
• 75% of Hubble Telescope publications
come from scientists ‘mining’ the archive
• Most astronomers no longer “observe”
• New “fields: “Multi-wavelength astronomy”
• New professions: Data Analysts
– Cf the 19th century “calculators”
• Dan Boorstin: Epistemological Inversion
– Data Poor to Data Rich with respect to Theory
Virtual Observatories
• Rebirth of amateur astronomy
– NASA public data release policies ( 6 months)
• “Crowd sourcing” projects:
– Berkeley Open Infrastructure Consortium
• SETI@home, Stardust, Martian Craters……
• Petabyte revolution: “end of theory”
– Statistical analysis of very large data sets
– database science
– Correlations, trend analysis,
The “Millenium Simulation”
Scientific Simulation
• Many problems not amenable to “compact
predictive descriptions” cf E=MC2, F=MA
• Complex systems, chaotic systems, many
body problems,
• Stellar evolution, planetary formation,
structure formation in universe
• The Simulation is the Hypothesis
Scientific Simulation
• C Hayles: retrodiction versus prediction
– S Kauffman : Phenomena “beyond prediction”
–
Galilean Fallacy: causality
• Search for “critical comparisons”
• Comparison of Computer Codes
• Problem of non unique solutions
– Cf “inversion’ problem.
• Same phenomena may have multiple
explanatory simulations
Visualisation, Sonification:\
Making data intimate
Scientific Visualisation
• All astronomical data is now digital
– Kodak has stopped making photographic
plates for astronomers
• The majority of astronomical data comes
from light/energy “invisible” to humans
• Ontological challenge:
– We have no sensory experience with the
phenomena we study
– How to do ‘ground truth”
Some Impacts of Computer Science
on Astronomy
• The scientific method is changing
– scientific simulation as the explanation
• The content of astronomy is changing
– New problems can be attacked
– Coupling to government/industry funding
• The profession of astronomer is
changing
– Social organisation of astronomy..internet..
– New opportunities for art-science
collaboration