What happens with an astronomical satellite after it is switched off? Answer: it keeps producing science. That is at least the true of the legendary International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite, an ESA/NASA/UK project. IUE was the first space observatory ever launched and also the one that lived the longest life – nearly two decades! This week ESA will release the new IUE archive (INES), the first astronomical database distributed to national data centres all over the world for faster and easier access. This new archive will no longer belong to ESA but to the entire scientific community. “This is the best farewell from ESA to a historic mission. Thanks to the new distributed system the IUE archive will become both a mine of discoveries and a powerful educational aid for future astronomers. It is a legacy worthy of the IUE project“, says Willem Wamsteker, ESA astronomer and ESA IUE Project Scientist.
The IUE Archive, storing two decades of ultraviolet astronomy, has become a historical reference. It contains more than 110 000 spectra from observations that in most cases cannot be repeated, and is an excellent source for studying variable phenomena. The long time-lapse covered and the stability of the instrument have enabled astronomers to witness events they never thought they would, such as the metamorphosis of a very old star into a beautiful planetary nebula: a hot central
star surrounded by glowing gas and dust. The IUE archive was the first astronomical archive accessible online — back in 1985, when the World Wide Web did not even exist– and has been a key catalyst for science: it has triggered the publication of 3 600 articles in refereed journals so far, and a whole generation of astrophysicists have used IUE data at some stage.
During IUE’s lifetime the archive was managed by ESA, from the Villafranca Satellite Tracking Station near Madrid (Spain). But not any longer. The IUE archive will now belong to the world scientific community. ESA has created INES (IUE Newly Extracted Spectra), a distribution system that allows IUE data to be accessed faster and more easily from non-ESA national hosts throughout the world, managed entirely by local experts. INES maintenance costs are minimal, and the system is designed for ready incorporation of whatever innovations might come in the future.
“The INES system and its data guarantee that future generations of astronomers will be able to use IUE data as much as they want, regardless of whether they know about the technicalities of the mission or whether there is an improvement in archive technology. And the distributed structure is better adapted to changes in user needs than a single archive centre“, says Antonio Talavera from the Laboratory for Space Astrophysics and Theoretical Physics (LAEFF), based at Villafranca. “ESA has created INES using a minimalist engineering approach for the world scientific community, and has made it to last. INES is easy to use and easy to upgrade, and LAEFF in Spain is proud to serve as the hub for the whole world”.
The INES Principal Centre is at the LAEFF, owned by INTA, the Spanish National Institute for Aerospace Technology. This centre, with a data mirror at the CADC in Victoria (Canada), holds the complete database and provides information not available from national hosts. So far 17 national hosts (listed below) have come online. Together they form with the Principal Centre an efficient and highly reliable distribution system for the community. The whole process of data retrieval is fully automated and totally transparent to the end user. This distributed structure avoids localised connectivity problems and guarantees availability of data.
The release of INES will be celebrated on 21 March with a ceremony at the ESA/VILSPA Satellite Tracking Station in Villafranca near Madrid (see attached agenda and accreditation form). At various other national hosts the release of the INES system will also be celebrated by local academic and demonstration events on different dates.
FOOTNOTE ON IUE SATELLITE
The ESA/NASA/UK IUE spacecraft, launched in January 1978, became the first space observatory facility available to the whole astronomical community. It marked the beginning of UV astronomy, a field for which space telescopes are essential because UV light does not reach the Earth’s surface. By the time IUE was switched off, in September 1996 –14 years later than originally planned — IUE had changed the view astronomers had of the universe. Among many other findings, IUE discovered the auroras in Jupiter; detected for the first time the halo in our galaxy –a large amount of very hot matter in the outskirts of the Milky Way (the halo); and measured the size of a black hole in the core of an active galaxy.
For more information please contact
ESA ñ Communication Division
Media Relations Office
Tel: +33(0)1.53.69.7155
Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690
Dr Willem Wamsteker, VILSPA:
Tel: +34 91 8131190
Fax: +34-91-8131192
E-mail: wwamstek@notes.vilspa.esa.es
LIST OF NATIONAL HOSTS
Summary information on INES national host institutes and URL addresses :
Argentina: Observatorio Astronomico, Univ. Nacional de La Plata, Buenos Aires
http://www.fcaglp.unlp.edu.ar/ *
Austria: Kuffner-Sternwarte, Vienna
http://www.kuffner.ac.at/ines/
Belgium: Royal Observatory of Belgium,
Brazil : Instituto Astronomico e Geofisico, Sao Paolo
http://ines.iagusp.usp.br/ines/
Canada: CADC/DAO, Victoria B. C .
Chile : AURA/CTIO, La Serena
China, P.R.(National) : Centre for Astrophysics – USTC, Hefei
http://iue.cfa.ustc.edu.cn/ines/ *
Costa Rica: University of Costa Rica, San Jose
Egypt: NRIAG – Helwan Observatory, Cairo
France : CDS – Observatoire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg
India : Space Science Data Centre – ISRO HQ, Bangalore
Indian Institute of Astrophysics – VBO, Alangayam
Israel : Wise Observatory, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv
Italy : Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Trieste
Japan : National Astronomical Observatory, Tokyo
Korea : Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Chungbuk
Mexico : INAOE, Puebla
Netherlands : Sterrenkundig Instituut, Utrecht
Nordic countries : Uppsala Astronomical Observatory, Uppsala
Poland : Torun Center for Astronomy, Nicholas Copernicus University, Torun
http://ines.astri.uni.torun.pl/
Portugal : Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto, Porto
Russia : Institute of Astronomy of Russian Acad. Sci., Moscow
South Africa : South African Astronomical Observatory, Cape Town
Spain : LAEFF/VILSPA, Madrid. INES Principal Centre
(also serving Germany and Switzerland)
Taiwan : Inst. of Physics and Astronomy, Chung-Li
Turkey : Physics Department – METU, Ankara
http://www.physics.metu.edu.tr/*
United Kingdom : Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton
http://iuepc.bnsc.rl.ac.uk/ines/
USA : STScI, Baltimore
Notes:
http: INES NH Node Link (installation completed and National Host fully operational)
*http: INES NH Institute Link (not yet operational)
Associated events in other countries will be held in:
Italy: 23 March
Russia: 24 March
France: 21 March
Poland: 23 March.
Austria:14 March
Belgium:24 March
Spain: 21 March
Israel: 26 March
Korea, Sweden and Netherlands : Dates to be determined.
For further details and information on national activities, we recommend contacting the local national host institutes (see list above).
ESA-VILSPA event :
Date: 21 March 10:30 ñ 14:00
Location: VILSPA (Villafranca Satellite Tracking Station),
Villanueva de la Canada, Madrid
Agenda
10:00 Arrival of Guests and Media
10:30 Welcome
V.Claros, VILSPA Station Director
10:40 Introductions
M.C.E. Huber, ESA Head of Space Science Department
A.L. Moratilla, INTA Subdirector-General de Relaciones Institucionales
11:00 A quarter century of ultraviolet astronomy,
W. Wamsteker, ESA-IUE Project Scientist
11:15 VILSPA-LAEFF collaboration
B.Montesinos Comino, LAEFF Director
11:30 What is the INES system
A.Talavera Iniesta, LAEFF Scientist
11:45 Demonstration
R. Gonzalez Riestra & E. Solano Marquez, INSA Scientists
12:15 Questions and answers
13:00 Coffee and drinks at Vilspa Hall OPS#2
ESA-VILSPA event:
Date: 21 March 10:30 ñ 14:00
Location: VILSPA (Villafranca Satellite Tracking Station),
Villanueva de la Canada, Madrid
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( ) I intend to participate in the ESA/VILSPA event
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Please fax this form back to :
ESA/VILSPA
Fany Pena
Tel: +34.91.813.12.11
Fax: +34.91.813.12.12
