Caltech Contact: Roy Williams
Email: roy at cacr.caltech.edu
Website: http://www.us-vo.org

Astronomy faces a data avalanche. Breakthroughs in telescope, detector, and computer technology allow astronomical surveys to produce terabytes of images and catalogs. These datasets cover the sky in different wavebands, from gamma- and X-rays, optical, infrared, through to radio. With the advent of inexpensive storage technologies and the availability of high-speed networks, the concept of multi-terabyte on-line databases interoperating seamlessly is no longer outlandish. More and more catalogs will be interlinked, query engines will become more and more sophisticated, and the research results from on-line data will be just as rich as that from "real" telescopes. Moore's law is driving astronomy even further: the planned Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will produce over 10 petabytes per year by 2008! These technological developments will fundamentally change the way astronomy is done. These changes will have dramatic effects on the sociology of astronomy itself. In August 2001, the US National Science Foundation awarded five-year funding to a collaboration "Framework for the National Virtual Observatory", under its Information Technology Research program. The work under that grant is collected at the NVO web site.