Dr. Alasdair Allan, on the eSTAR team at the University of Exeter, said "The universe currently does things faster than we can respond to them. To study the most rapid and violent events in the universe, we need to be able to follow them quickly."
As well as supernova explosions, many other astronomical events happen suddenly and unpredictably. These include the detection of near-Earth asteroids as they move across the sky, rapid changes in the swirling gases being swallowed by black holes, and the subtle changes in the brightness of stars which may indicate planets in orbit around them.
The Intelligent Agent programs communicate with telescopes and each other using technology designed for the Grid - the "next generation Internet". They make observations with the telescopes, which they can analyse and immediately follow up with further observations, without the need for human intervention.
Prof. Tim Naylor, who led the eSTAR team and is also at the University of Exeter, said "We're creating a network of telescopes which can respond automatically to objects of great astronomical importance."
Although this is not the first time that telescopes have been automated, or connected to the Internet, Dr. Allan explains "What is so important here is that we have developed an intelligent observing system. It thinks and reacts for itself, deciding whether something it has discovered is interesting enough to need more observations. If more observations are needed, it just goes ahead and gets them."
Frossie Economou of the Joint Astronomy Centre, which operates UKIRT, said "Our plan is for the Agents to send messages to astronomers' mobile phones, and even pictures if the phone supports them. That way, you'll be able to follow events at the telescope, no matter where you are in the world."
Dr. Allan continues "The Agents can detect and respond to the rapidly changing universe faster than any human, and make decisions to observe an object much faster than would otherwise be possible. Only then need they tell their human masters what they're doing."
The Agents were recently put through their paces for the first time on a large research-class telescope: the 3.8-metre United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. An Agent took live images with UKIRT, and compared them with previous infrared maps of the sky. It detected a dwarf nova - a star which experiences sudden flares in its brightness.
It wasn't just technical hurdles that the team had to overcome in order to bring this complex system online. As Dr. Andy Adamson, Director of UKIRT, said "On the test night itself, we even had an earthquake on the island, but everyone remained undaunted. Both the eSTAR Agent and the telescope worked as planned."
In the next few months, the eSTAR Agents will spread from UKIRT to the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (also operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre). After that, the team will expand the network to include fully robotic telescopes such as the Liverpool Telescope on La Palma and the Faulkes Telescopes in Hawaii and Australia.
So are the eSTAR team planning to put astronomers out of a job? Dr. Allan says not: "The Agents can be used to assist human observers, instead of replacing them entirely - augmenting their abilities to do science quicker, faster, and more reliably."
The eSTAR work is being presented in talks by Alasdair Allan and Frossie Economou at the Astronomical Data Analysis Software & Systems conference in Strasbourg, on the 14th and 15th October respectively.
Images
PLEASE NOTE: UNTIL THE EMBARGO IS LIFTED YOU WILL NEED TO ACCESS THESE IMAGES WITH THE USERNAME 'press' AND THE PASSWORD 'agent'. In the event of problems, please email outreach@jach.hawaii.edu
Star trails as the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) watches the night sky. CREDIT: Nik Szymanek.
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pressroom/2003-estar/ukirtnight-large.jpg
(full size JPG 190kB)
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pressroom/2003-estar/ukirtnight-small.jpg
(smaller size JPG 47kB)
The massive star Eta Carinae. This star went through a giant explosive outburst about 150 years ago, suddenly making it one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. In the future, changes like this will be immediately detected and investigated by the eSTAR network. CREDIT: N. Smith (U. Colorado), J. Morse (Arizona State U.), and NASA.
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pressroom/2003-estar/etacarinae-large.jpg
(full size JPG 1.5MB)
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pressroom/2003-estar/etacarinae-small.jpg
(smaller size JPG 20kB)
A diagram showing how the eSTAR network operates. The Intelligent Agents access telescopes and existing astronomical databases through the Grid. CREDIT: Joint Astronomy Centre. Eta Carinae image courtesy of N. Smith (U. Colorado), J. Morse (Arizona State U.), and NASA.
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pressroom/2003-estar/estardiagram-large.png
(full size PNG 230kB)
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pressroom/2003-estar/estardiagram-small.png
(smaller size PNG 75kB)
Notes for Editors
The eSTAR Project
eSTAR is a joint project between the Astrophysics Research Institute at Liverpool John Moores University and the Astrophysics Research Group of the School of Physics at the University of Exeter. This work was a collaboration between the eSTAR project and the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hawaii. The project is funded jointly through the UK's Department of Trade and Industry, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC)
e-science programmes. More information about the project can be found at http://www.estar.org.uk/
UKIRT
The world's largest telescope dedicated solely to infrared astronomy, the 3.8-metre UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) is sited near the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, at an altitude of 4194 meters above sea level. It is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hilo, Hawaii, on behalf of the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council.
Dwarf novae
Dwarf novae are a particular class of "cataclysmic variable" binary star systems. One star in the pair is a white dwarf, and the other is a main-sequence star possibly similar to our Sun. The white dwarf captures gas from its companion star due to their gravitational interaction, and it is fluctuations in this process that lead to unpredictable changes in the dwarf nova's brightness.
University of Exeter Astrophysics Group
The Exeter Astrophysics group was formed less than three years ago, but has grown rapidly into one of the UK's leading groups studying the formation of stars and planets. See http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/ for more information about the research group at the University of Exeter.
CONTACTS
Prof. Tim Naylor
School of Physics
University of Exeter
Email timn@astro.ex.ac.uk
Tel: +44 1392 264172
Dr. Alasdair Allan (in Strasbourg until 18th October - contact by email)
School of Physics
University of Exeter
Email: aa@astro.ex.ac.uk
Tel: +44 1392 264160
Dr. Douglas Pierce-Price (for general questions about UKIRT and the Joint Astronomy Centre)
Joint Astronomy Centre, Hawaii
Email: outreach@jach.hawaii.edu
Tel: +1 808 969 6524
Fax: +1 808 961 6516
Julia Maddock
PPARC Press Office<
Email julia.maddock@pparc.ac.uk
Tel: 01793 442094
WEB LINKS
eSTAR Project home page
http://www.estar.org.uk/
eSTAR Project mirror page
http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/estar/
More about the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT)
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/articles/aboutukirt/
Joint Astronomy Centre public outreach site
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/
Astronomical Data Analysis Software & Systems conference
http://www.adass.org/
This press release
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pressroom/2003-estar/
The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) is the UK's strategic science investment agency. It funds research, education and public understanding in four areas of science - particle physics, astronomy, cosmology and space science.
PPARC is government funded and provides research grants and studentships to scientists in British universities, gives researchers access to world-class facilities and funds the UK membership of international bodies such as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), and the European Space Agency. It also contributes money for the UK telescopes overseas on La Palma, Hawaii, Australia and in Chile, the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh and the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility, which includes the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank observatory.
PPARC's Public Understanding of Science and Technology Awards Scheme funds both small local projects and national initiatives aimed at improving public understanding of its areas of science.