A proposal for community driven and decentralized astronomical databases and the Open Exoplanet Catalogue
29 Nov 2012
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Hanno Rein
I present a new kind of astronomical database based on small text files and a
distributed version control system. This encourages the community to work
collaboratively...It creates a decentralized, completely open and democratic way
of managing small to medium sized heterogeneous astronomical databases and
catalogues. The use of the XML file format allows an easy to parse and read,
yet dynamic and extendable database structure. The Open Exoplanet Catalogue is based on these principles and presented as an
example. It is a catalogue of all discovered extra-solar planets. It is the
only catalogue that can correctly represent the orbital structure of planets in
arbitrary binary, triple and quadruple star systems, as well as orphan planets.(read more)