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Paper: Architectures for Time-domain Astronomy
Volume: 411, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVIII
Page: 547
Authors: Seaman, R.; Allan, A.; Pierfederici, F.; Williams, R.
Abstract: Wonder at the changing sky predates recorded history. Empirical studies of time-varying celestial phenomena date back to Galileo and Tycho. Telegrams conveying news of transient and recurrent events have been key astronomical infrastructure since the nineteenth century. Recent micro-lensing, supernova and gamma-ray burst studies have lead to a succession of exciting discoveries, but massive new time-domain surveys will soon overwhelm our nineteenth century transient response technologies. Meeting this challenge demands new autonomous architectures for astronomy. These Architectures should reach from proposing new research, through experimental design and the scheduling of telescope operations, to the archiving and pipeline-processing of data to discover new transients, to the publishing of these events, through automated follow-up via robotic and ToO assets, and to the display and analysis of observational results. All will lead to adaptive adjustment of time-domain investigations. The IVOA VOEvent protocol provides an engine for purpose-built astronomical architectures.
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