Intelligent Agents and robotic telescopes to help astronomers keepup with the universe (Forwarded)

Joint Astronomy Centre
Hilo, Hawaii

Contacts:

Prof. Tim Naylor
School of Physics
University of Exeter
Email
Tel: +44 1392 264172

Dr. Alasdair Allan (in Strasbourg until 18th October - contact by email)
School of Physics
University of Exeter
Email:
Tel:+44 1392 264160

Dr. Douglas Pierce-Price
(for general questions about UKIRT and the Joint Astronomy Centre)
Joint Astronomy Centre, Hawaii
Email:
Tel: +1 808 969 6524 Fax: +1 808 961 6516

EMBARGOED, for release: 01:00 EDT, Tuesday 14th October 2003
06:00 BST, Tuesday 14th October 2003
07:00 CEST, Tuesday 14th October 2003

Intelligent Agents and robotic telescopes to help astronomers keep up with the
universe

"Intelligent Agent" computer programs are roaming the Internet and watching the
skies. It may sound like science fiction, but these programs will help
astronomers detect some of the most dramatic events in the universe, such as
massive supernova explosions. The Agents, created by the "eScience Telescopes
for Astronomical Research" (eSTAR) project, have been deployed on the United
Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii. The work is being announced at a
conference in Strasbourg on 14th and 15th October.

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.

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.

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.

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/

IMAGE CAPTIONS:

[Image 1:
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pres...ight-large.jpg (full
size JPG 190kB)
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pres...ight-small.jpg
(smaller size JPG 47kB)]
Star trails as the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) watches the night
sky.CREDIT: Nik Szymanek.

[Image 2:
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pres...inae-large.jpg (full
size JPG 1.5MB)
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pres...inae-small.jpg
(smaller size JPG 20kB)]
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.

[Image 3:
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pres...gram-large.png
(full size PNG 230kB)
http://outreach.jach.hawaii.edu/pres...gram-small.png
(smaller size PNG 75kB)]
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.