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NASA NTRS1995

Spectroscopic data for an astronomy database

Very few of the atomic and molecular data used in analyses of astronomical spectra are currently available in World Wide Web (WWW) databases that are searchable with hypertext browsers. We have begun to rectify this situation by making extensive atomic data files available with simple search procedures. We have also established links to other on-line atomic and molecular databases. All can be accessed from our database homepage with URL: http:// cfa-www.harvard.edu/ amp/ data/ amdata.html.

Parkinson, W. H.↗

NASA NTRS2004

The NASA ADS: Searching, Linking and More

The NASA ADS Abstract Service is a NASA-funded project which provides FREE World Wide Web abstract search services. We currently have over 3.6 million references in four databases: 1) Astronomy and Planetary Sciences; 2) Physics and Geophysics; 3) Space Instrumentation; and 4) Astronomy Preprints. Our eleven mirror sites in France, Germany, Japan, Chile, Great Britain, India, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Korea and China help to provide better global access. Each database contains abstracts from hundreds of journals, publications, colloquia, symposia, proceedings, PhD Theses, and NASA reports. All abstracts can be searched by author, title, or abstract text words.

Thompson, D. M.↗

NASA NTRS1993

AstroMail: Electronic mail for the astrophysics community

As part of the NASA Science Internet User Support Services program, NASA Goddard was interested in R&D which could extend the SolarMail system developed by members of the Wilcox Space Observatory at Stanford University to support a larger astrophysics user community. Specific objectives of the R&D effort were to include: a clone of the existing SolarMail system with additional documentation, enabling a parallel mail system to be established by populating the database; a cloned version of SolarMail functioning with a user database similar to that of the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) of the American Astronomical Society; a report on the status and surveyed usage of SolarMail and its clones into an extendable distributed mail system to serve as the basis for AstroMail, including a draft declaration of policy; a prototype AstroMail system based on the above specifications and including at least SolarMail and one of its clones supporting a set of astronomy user databases as subsets; and a report on the status of the prototype AstroMail with recommendations for future modifications to AstroMail.

Scherrer, Phillip H.↗

NASA NTRS1995

NED and SIMBAD Conventions for Bibliographic Reference Coding

The primary purpose of the 'reference code' is to provide a unique and traceable representation of a bibliographic reference within the structure of each database. The code is used frequently in the interfaces as a succinct abbreviation of a full bibliographic reference. Since its inception, it has become a standard code not only for NED and SIMBAD, but also for other bibliographic services.

NED SIMBAD bibliographic reference coding astronom↗

NASA NTRS1993

User friendly database for Neptune planetary radio astronomy observations

Planetary Radio Astronomy (PRA) data from the Voyager Neptune encounter were cleaned and reformatted in a variety of formats. Most of these formats are new and have been specifically designed to provide easy access and use of the data without the need to understand esoteric characteristics of the PRA instrument or the Voyager spacecraft. Several data sets were submitted to the Planetary Data System (PDS) and have either appeared already on peer reviewed CDROM's or are in the process of being reviewed for inclusion in forthcoming CD-ROM's. Many of the data sets are also available online electronically through computer networks; it is anticipated that as time permits, the PDS will make all the data sets that were a part of this contract available both online and on CD-ROM's.

Evans, David R.↗

NASA NTRS1986

IRAS surface brightness maps of visible reflection nebulae: Evidence for non-equilibrium infrared emission

Surface brightness maps at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns of 16 visible reflection nebulae were extracted from the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) database. The maps were produced by coadding IRAS survey scans over areas centered on the illuminating stars, and have spatial resolutions of 0.9' x 4' at 12 and 25 microns, 1.8' x 4.5' at 60 microns, and 3.6' x 5' at 100 microns. Extended emission in the four IRAS bandpasses was detected in fourteen of the reflection nebulae. The IRAS data were used to measure the flux of the infrared emission associated with each source. The energy distributions show that the 12 micron flux is greater than the 25 micron flux in 11 of the nebulae, and the peak flux occurs in the 60 or 100 micron bandpass in all 16 nebular. The 60 and 100 micron flux can be approximated by blackbodies with temperatures between 30 and 50 K, consistent with temperatures expected from extrapolation of greybody fits to the 60 and 100 micron data. The excess 12 and 25 micron emission is attributed to a nonequilibrium process such as emission from thermal fluctuations of very small grains excited by single ultraviolet photons, or emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) excited by ultraviolet radiation. The common features of the energy distributions of the 16 reflection nebulae, also seen in the reflection nebulae associated with the Pleiades, suggest that PAHs or very small grains may be found in most reflection nebulae.

Castelaz, M. W.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Electronic publishing and intelligent information retrieval

Europeans are now taking steps to homogenize policies and standardize procedures in electronic publishing (EP) in astronomy and space sciences. This arose from an open meeting organized in Oct. 1991 at Strasbourg Observatory (France) and another business meeting held late Mar. 1992 with the major publishers and journal editors in astronomy and space sciences. The ultimate aim of EP might be considered as the so-called 'intelligent information retrieval' (IIR) or better named 'advanced information retrieval' (AIR), taking advantage of the fact that the material to be published appears at some stage in a machine-readable form. It is obvious that the combination of desktop and electronic publishing with networking and new structuring of knowledge bases will profoundly reshape not only our ways of publishing, but also our procedures of communicating and retrieving information. It should be noted that a world-wide survey among astronomers and space scientists carried out before the October 1991 colloquium on the various packages and machines used, indicated that TEX-related packages were already in majoritarian use in our community. It has also been stressed at each meeting that the European developments should be carried out in collaboration with what is done in the US (STELLAR project, for instance). American scientists and journal editors actually attended both meetings mentioned above. The paper will offer a review of the status of electronic publishing in astronomy and its possible contribution to advanced information retrieval in this field. It will also report on recent meetings such as the 'Astronomy from Large Databases-2 (ALD-2)' conference dealing with the latest developments in networking, in data, information, and knowledge bases, as well as in the related methodologies.

Heck, A.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Infra-red archived data

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

archives databases infrared astronomy↗

NASA NTRS1993

The IR properties of ringed galaxies and the IRAS database

Our study of the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) properties of ringed galaxies has been largely successful. We have identified what we think is the probable cause of the differences in the IRAS properties among non-interacting barred galaxies as the pattern speed of the bar. The key to identifying this parameter has been our focusing the study on outer-ringed galaxies where we know precisely what is present in the central regions (from available BVI CCD images in our library of images). The theory is that outer rings, through their morphology and other characteristics, can be identified with the outer Lindblad resonance, one of the major resonances in galaxy structure. Using a library of n-body simulations for comparison, we can reliably infer both low and high pattern speed galaxies from the appearance of outer rings and the existence of other ring features. It is clear that in some barred galaxies, the bar pattern speed is high enough to avoid an inner Lindblad resonance, hence such objects do not contain nuclear or circumnuclear star formation. The IRAS observations are most sensitive to nuclear star formation in early-type barred galaxies, and will thus select those barred galaxies where the pattern speed is low enough to allow an inner Lindblad resonance to exist. High pattern speed barred galaxies therefore weaken the correlation between bars and infrared excess. This finding helps to reconcile the inconsistent results found between different studies on the correlation between bars and far-IR emission.

Buta, Ronald J.↗

NASA NTRS2000

Chandra and XMM-Newton: Atomic Data Needs For X-ray Astronomy

With the launches of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XM M-Newton, high resolution X-ray spectra of cosmic sources are broadening our understanding of the physical conditions, such as temperature, density, Ionization state, and elemental abundances. X-ray emitting astrophysical plasmas can be generally classified by their dominant ionization mechanism, either collisional ionization or X-ray photoionization. The atomic data needs are significantly different for these two cases; however, for both cases it is important that we identify robust and accurate diagnostics and that we verify completeness of the broadband models. We discuss the status of tile atomic data currently used in atomic databases for X-ray astronomy, in view of theoretical and experimental atomic physics considerations. We will also discuss the application of these models to new astrophysical data.

Brickhouse, Nancy↗

NASA NTRS1992

SIMBAD quality-control

The astronomical database SIMBAD developed at the Centre de donnees astronomiques de Strasbourg presently contains 760,000 objects (stellar and non-stellar). It has the unique characteristic of being structured specifically for astronomical objects. All types of heterogeneous data (bibliographic references, measurements, and sets of identification) are connected with each object. The attributes that define quality of the database include the following. Reliability: cross-identification should not rely upon just exact values object coordinates. It also means that information attached to one simple object should be consistent. The existing data must be controlled in order to start with a reliable base and to cross-identify new data assuring the quality as data grows. Exhaustivity: delays between publication of new informations and their inclusion in the database should be as short as possible. The integrity of the database has to be maintained as data accumulates. Taking the amount of data into consideration and the rate of new data production, it is necessary to use automatic methods. One of the possibilities is to use multivariate data analysis. The factor-space is a n-dimensional relevancy space which is described by the n-axes representing a set of n subject matter headings; the words and phrases can be used to scale the axes and the documents are then a vector average of the terms within them. The application reported herein is based on the NASA-STI bibliographical database. The selected data concern astronomy, astrophysics, and space radiation (102,963 references from 1975 to 1991 included 8070 keywords). The F-space is built from this bibliographical data. By comparing the F-space position obtained from the NASA-STI keywords with the F-space position obtained from the SIMBAD references, the authors will be able to show whether it is possible to retrieve information with a restricted set of words only. If the comparison is valid, this will be a way to enter bibliographic information in the SIMBAD quality control process. Furthermore, it is possible to connect the physical measurements of stars from SIMBAD to literature concerning these stars from the NASA-STI abstracts. The physical properties of stars (e.g. UBV colors) are not randomly distributed. Stars are distributed among different clusters in a physical parameter space. The authors will show that there are some relations between this classification and the literature concerning these objects clusters in a factor space. They will investigate the nature of the relationship between the SIMBAD measurements and the bibliography. These would be new relationships that are not pre-established by an astronomer. In addition, the bibliography could be neutral information that can be used in combination with the measured parameters.

Lesteven, Soizick↗

NASA NTRS1988

Planetary astronomy

The goal is to use a variety of observational techniques and instruments to reduce, interpret, and synthesize groundbased astronomical data concerning the comets, asteroids, and other small bodies of the solar system in order to study the compositions, physical characteristics, population properties, and evolution of these bodies. This year's research has involved five distinct efforts. Chapman has studied asteroids, with emphasis on synthesizing groundbased databases to determine surface mineralogies and population characteristics; many new results on astronomy, size-distributions, and asteroid family traits have been obtained.

Chapman, Clark R.↗

NASA NTRS1999

Interstellar PAH emission in the 11-14 micron region: new insights from laboratory data and a tracer of ionized PAHs

The Ames infrared spectral database of isolated, neutral and ionized polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS) shows that aromatic CH out-of-plane bending frequencies are significantly shifted upon ionization. For solo- and duet-CH groups, the shift is pronounced and consistently toward higher frequencies. The solo-CH modes are blueshifted by an average of 27 cm-1 and the duet-CH modes by an average of 17 cm-1. For trio- and quartet-CH groups, the ionization shifts of the out-of-plane modes are more erratic and typically more modest. As a result of these ionization shifts, the solo-CH out-of-plane modes move out of the region classically associated with these vibrations in neutral PAHS, falling instead at frequencies well above those normally attributed to out-of-plane bending, vibrations of any type. In addition, for the compact PAHs studied, the duet-CH out-of-plane modes are shifted into the frequency range traditionally associated with the solo-CH modes. These results refine our understanding of the origin of the dominant interstellar infrared emission feature near 11.2 microns, whose envelope has traditionally been attributed only to the out-of-plane bending of solo-CH groups on PAHS, and provide a natural explanation for the puzzling emission feature near 11.0 microns within the framework of the PAH model. Specifically, the prevalent but variable long-wavelength wing or shoulder that is often observed near 11.4 microns likely reflects the contributions of duet-CH units in PAH cations. Also, these results indicate that the emission between 926 and 904 cm-1 (10.8 and 11.1 microns) observed in many sources can be unambiguously attributed to the out-of-plane wagging, of solo-CH units in moderately sized (fewer than 50 carbon atom) PAH cations, making this emission an unequivocal tracer of ionized interstellar PAHS.

Astronomy↗

NASA NTRS1999

The spacing of the interstellar 6.2 and 7.7 micron emission features as an indicator of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon size

A database of astrophysically relevant, infrared spectral measurements on a wide variety of neutral as well as positively and negatively charged polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), ranging in size from C10H8 through C48H20, is now available to extend the interstellar PAH model. Beyond simply indicating general characteristics of the carriers, this collection of data now makes it possible to conduct a more thorough interpretation of the details of the interstellar spectra and thereby derive deeper insights into the nature of the emitting material and conditions in the emission zones. This Letter is the first such implementation of this spectral database. The infrared spectra of PAH cations, the main PAH form in the most energetic emission zones, are usually dominated by a few strong features in the 1650-1100 cm-1 (6.1-9.1 microns) region that tend to cluster the vicinity of the interstellar emission bands at 1610 and 1320 cm-1 (6.2 and 7.6 microns), but with spacings typically somewhat less than that observed in the canonical interstellar spectrum. However, the spectra in the database show that this spacing increases steadily with molecular size. Extrapolation of this trend indicates that PAHs in the 50-80 carbon atom size range are entirely consistent with the observed interstellar spacing. Furthermore, the profile of the 1610 cm-1 (6.2 microns) interstellar band indicates that PAHs containing as few as 20 carbon atoms contribute to this feature.

Extraterrestrial Environment↗

NASA NTRS1992

Some practicable applications of quadtree data structures/representation in astronomy

Development of quadtree as hierarchical data structuring technique for representing spatial data (like points, regions, surfaces, lines, curves, volumes, etc.) has been motivated to a large extent by storage requirements of images, maps, and other multidimensional (spatially structured) data. For many spatial algorithms, time-efficiency of quadtrees in terms of execution may be as important as their space-efficiency concerning storage conditions. Briefly, the quadtree is a class of hierarchical data structures which is based on the recursive partition of a square region into quadrants and sub-quadrants until a predefined limit. Beyond the wide applicability of quadtrees in image processing, spatial information analysis, and building digital databases (processes becoming ordinary for the astronomical community), there may be numerous further applications in astronomy. Some of these practicable applications based on quadtree representation of astronomical data are presented and suggested for further considerations. Examples are shown for use of point as well as region quadtrees. Statistics of different leaf and non-leaf nodes (homogeneous and heterogeneous sub-quadrants respectively) at different levels may provide useful information on spatial structure of astronomical data in question. By altering the principle guiding the decomposition process, different types of spatial data may be focused on. Finally, a sampling method based on quadtree representation of an image is proposed which may prove to be efficient in the elaboration of sampling strategy in a region where observations were carried out previously either with different resolution or/and in different bands.

Pasztor, L.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Full Text Searching and Customization in the NASA ADS Abstract Service

The NASA-ADS Abstract Service provides a sophisticated search capability for the literature in Astronomy, Planetary Sciences, Physics/Geophysics, and Space Instrumentation. The ADS is funded by NASA and access to the ADS services is free to anybody worldwide without restrictions. It allows the user to search the literature by author, title, and abstract text. The ADS database contains over 3.6 million references, with 965,000 in the Astronomy/Planetary Sciences database, and 1.6 million in the Physics/Geophysics database. 2/3 of the records have full abstracts, the rest are table of contents entries (titles and author lists only). The coverage for the Astronomy literature is better than 95% from 1975. Before that we cover all major journals and many smaller ones. Most of the journal literature is covered back to volume 1. We now get abstracts on a regular basis from most journals. Over the last year we have entered basically all conference proceedings tables of contents that are available at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics library. This has greatly increased the coverage of conference proceedings in the ADS. The ADS also covers the ArXiv Preprints. We download these preprints every night and index all the preprints. They can be searched either together with the other abstracts or separately. There are currently about 260,000 preprints in that database. In January 2004 we have introduced two new services, full text searching and a personal notification service called "myADS". As all other ADS services, these are free to use for anybody.

Eichhorn, G.↗

NASA NTRS2003

Expanded Citations Database in the NASA ADS Abstract Service

Eichhorn, G.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Near-Earth Asteroids: Destinations for Human Exploration

The Near-Earth Object Human Space Flight Accessible Targets Study (NHATS) is a system that monitors the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) population to identify NEAs whose orbital characteristics may make them potential destinations for future round-trip human space flight missions. To accomplish this monitoring, Brent Barbee (GSFC) developed and automated a system that applies specialized trajectory processing to the orbits of newly discovered NEAs, and those for which we have updated orbit knowledge, obtained from the JPL Small Bodies Database (SBDB). This automated process executes daily and the results are distributed to the general public and the astronomy community. This aids in prioritizing telescope radar time allocations for obtaining crucial follow-up observations of highly accessible NEAs during the critical, because it is often fleeting, time period surrounding the time at which the NEAs are initially discovered.

NEO↗