Gaia Data Release 1: the Archive Visualisation Service A
Astronomy & Astrophysics manuscript no. arxiv c ESO 2017 August 2, 2017 Gaia Data Release 1: The archive visualisation service A. Moitinho1, A. Krone-Martins1, H. Savietto2, M. Barros1, C. Barata1, A.J. Falcão3, T. Fernandes3, J. Alves4, A.F. Silva1, M. Gomes1, J. Bakker5, A.G.A. Brown6, J. González-Núñez7; 8, G. Gracia-Abril9; 10, R. Gutiérrez-Sánchez11, J. Hernández12, S. Jordan13, X. Luri10, B. Merin5, F. Mignard14, A. Mora15, V. Navarro5, W. O’Mullane12, T. Sagristà Sellés13, J. Salgado16, J.C. Segovia7, E. Utrilla15, F. Arenou17, J.H.J. de Bruijne18, F. Jansen19, M. McCaughrean20, K.S. O’Flaherty21, M.B. Taylor22, and A. Vallenari23 (Affiliations can be found after the references) Received date / Accepted date ABSTRACT Context. The first Gaia data release (DR1) delivered a catalogue of astrometry and photometry for over a billion astronomical sources. Within the panoply of methods used for data exploration, visualisation is often the starting point and even the guiding reference for scientific thought. However, this is a volume of data that cannot be efficiently explored using traditional tools, techniques, and habits. Aims. We aim to provide a global visual exploration service for the Gaia archive, something that is not possible out of the box for most people. The service has two main goals. The first is to provide a software platform for interactive visual exploration of the archive contents, using common personal computers and mobile devices available to most users. The second aim is to produce intelligible and appealing visual representations of the enormous information content of the archive. Methods. The interactive exploration service follows a client-server design.
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