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