The GLORIA Projects introduces Personal Space, a public-domain tool for exploring the Cosmos from a laptop

Advertised on

The GLORIA Project (http://gloria-project.eu) is an international venture led by Spain whose object is to bring astronomy to any one with an internet connection. Allowing public use of a network of robotic telescopes, it also offers the opportunity to observe any area of the sky from one’s home. But, with the entire Cosmos at our fingertips, where to begin?

Personal Space (http://personal-space.eu), which was conceived under the aegis of GLORIA and is the result of a collaboration between astronomers and the Irish artist E. O. Boyle, suggests an answer.

‘Personal Space is an on-line invitation to connect with and explore the Universe in an intuitive way by showing beautiful astronomical images of a portion of the celestial vault on view at a given time and place in our lives,’ comments Alberto J. Castro-Tirado, the scientist heading  the GLORIA Project and astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía.

‘Personal Space is a great tool for bringing astronomy to society in an amenable and entertaining way. Afterwards, those persons who are interested can carry on observing the sky through the telescopes of the GLORIA Project,’ explains Miquel Serra-Ricart, the astronomer responsible for the GLORIA at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).

Simply by keying in a date, time and place (for example, date and place of birth) via the web interface, the user can access the area of the sky that was overhead at that significant time and place in his life. It also enables users to check if ‘their’ area of sky overlaps with that of another user or with some historical event. The GLORIA scientists are building an archive of important historical events to be incorporated into the application.

The images of the archive come from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and do more than just enable us to admire the beauty of the Cosmos. The tool also provides additional information on the constellations, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and acts as a springboard for additional exploration and inspiration.

GLORIA is a project of three years’ duration funden by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union (FP7/2007–2012), reference number 283783. The project, which began in October 2011 and involves thirteen institutions from eight countries, is led by Spain, where, apart from the IAC, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IAA-CSIC), the Polytechnical University of Madrid (UPM), the University of Málaga (UMA) and the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (through the Centre for Astrobiology; CAB/INTA-CSIC) also participate.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Contacts:

  • Miquel Serra-Ricart, IAC: mserra [at] iac.es (mserra[at]iac[dot]es), 649848305 and 922605200
  • Alberto J. Castro-Tirado, IAA-CSIC, ajct [at] iaa.es (ajct[at]iaa[dot]es), 958230500
News type
Press release

It may interest you

  • Artist's impression of a binary star system
    Press release
    Study reveals how binary stars change their stellar dance with age
    Research led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has discovered that, in binary systems, stars that evolve into red giants change the way they rotate with their companions, making their orbits more circular. The result was achieved after studying nearly 1000 solar-like oscillating stars in binary systems, the greatest yield to date of such objects. For their identification, the third Gaia Data Release (Gaia-DR3) and NASA Kepler and TESS catalogs have been explored. The study has been published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics and has been selected as the most recent
    Advertised on
  • Poster for the Open Days at the Teide 2024 Observatory. Credit: Inés Bonet (IAC)
    Press release
    The Teide Observatory will hold its Open Days on 22nd and 23rd June
    FULLY BOOKED Thank you very much for your interest in the Open Days 2024. All available places have been fully booked with the applications received. Those who have successfully registered will receive an email confirming their attendance or non-attendance as soon as possible. We regret that we are unable to attend all applications, but we encourage you to stay tuned for our next calls and events - we look forward to your participation in future activities! We would like to remind you that other visits are organised throughout the year and can be requested via our Visits page . Coinciding
    Advertised on
  • Las tres imágenes que obtiene la aplicación PINRELL se combinan en una sola. Crédito: IACTEC.
    Press release
    IACTEC and the prompt detection of a diabetic foot
    The technology which is used in astrophysics research is useful not only in space; many of the sophisticated techniques can be put to very good use in the field of medicine. On this basis in IACTEC there is a team of Medical Technology (TECMED) who develop combinations of the methods of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning used in astrophysics for the diagnosis of pathologies. To celebrate the International Day of Diabetes the team stresses the magnitude of the problema in the Islands. Some experts call diabetes one of the worst “silent pandemics”. Spain is the second country in the
    Advertised on