The EURO-VO projects:       EuroVO-ICE                   Past projects: VOTECH       EuroVO-DCA       EuroVO-AIDA      

What is a Virtual Observatory?

The Virtual Observatory is an international astronomical community-based initiative. It aims to allow global electronic access to the available astronomical data archives of space and ground-based observatories, sky survey databases. It also aims to enable data analysis techniques through a coordinating entity that will provide common standards, wide-network bandwidth, and state-of-the-art analysis tools.

VO Reality

It is now possible to have powerful and expensive new observing facilities at wavelengths from the radio to the X-ray and gamma-ray regions. Together with advanced instrumentation techniques, a vast new array of astronomical data sets will soon be forthcoming at all wavelengths. These very large databases must be archived and made accessible in a systematic and uniform manner to realise the full potential of the new observing facilities.

The Virtual Observatory aims to provide the framework for global access to the various data archives by facilitating the standardisation of archiving and data-mining protocols.

New Paradigm for Researchers

The Virtual Observatory initiative is a global collaboration of the world's astronomical communities under the auspices of the recently formed International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA).

The EURO-VO project aims at deploying an operational VO in Europe.
In coordination with the European astronomical infrastructural networks OPTICON and RADIONET, and through membership and support of the IVOA, EURO-VO is seekiing to obtain the following objectives:

  1. support to the scientific community to utilise the new VO infrastructure through dissemination, workshops, project support, and VO facility-wide resources and services;
  2. building of an operational VO infrastructure in response to new scientific challenges via development and refinement of VO components, assessment of new technologies, design of new components and their implementation.
  3. technology take-up and full VO compliant data and resource provision by astronomical data centres in Europe;

The EURO-VO project is open to all European astronomical data centres. Initial partners include ESO, the European Space Agency, and six national funding agencies, with their respective VO nodes: Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF, Italy), Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers (INSU, France), Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial (INTA, Spain), Nederlandse Onderzoekschool voor Astronomie (NOVA, Netherlands), Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC, UK), and Rat Deutscher Sternwarten (RDS, Germany).

last updated: 31-May-2010 co-funded project