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Published online 21 May 2008 |
453,
437
(2008)
| doi:10.1038/453437a
Corrected online: 11 June 2008
News
No star left behind
An open-source software project could help unify every existing astronomical image into a single data set.
Everyone knows the experience: a pile of old photos in a dusty attic — or more likely now on a dusty disk drive — with no indication of who is in them or when they were taken. As long as the subjects are astronomical features, though, there's now an answer at hand.
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The goal is noble, "to recognize any starscape and place it in its proper coordinates". The challenge is the historic trap of KNOWING and then restricting and directing research in the wrong direction. The space agency NASA illustrates this problem. -Oliver K. Manuel, http://www.omatumr.com