Concept
The NVO was conceived to allow scientists to grapple with the enormous growth in astronomical data resulting from significant advances in telescope, detector, and computer technologies. These advances have resulted in a plethora of images, other data, and catalogs. In August 2001, the NSF allocated funding for a proposal entitled "Framework for the National Virtual Observatory". The grant was approved under its Information Technology Research program (since superseded). Current NVO funding supports collaboration to produce a distributed computing framework for an integrated cyber infrastructure for astronomers providing seamless access to these astronomical resources.
The manifestation of this infrastructure will be an operational “virtual observatory” available to scientists and to the public. Investigators acquire existing astronomical data from a variety of observatory archives through “virtual instruments”, that is, computer interfaces, tools, and services. The NVO is planned and implemented in synergy with the research community, the primary users of the system. In 2007, the operational stage of the NVO will begin with combined funding from NSF and NASA and programmatically executed through NSF. Scientists access the NVO through the NVO website.
Read more about this topic: National Virtual Observatory
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