P.11 Raffaele D'Abrusco (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian)
The Future of astronomical archives: reaching out to and engaging broader communities
The importance of archival science increases significantly for astrophysical observatories as they mature and their archive holdings grow in size and complexity. Further enhancing the science return of archival data requires engaging a larger audience than the mission reference community, mostly because of the growth of interest in multi-wavelength and transient/time-variability research. Such a goal, however, can be cost-ineffective and technically challenging in the framework of the continuos expansion and tweaking of existing tools and interfaces designed to cater to the needs and requirements of the mission core community. In this poster I will describe a different approach to this question that, while minimizing technological friction and leveraging existing services, makes archival observations more accessible and increases our capability to proactively engage astronomers on potentially interesting archival records. Inspired by this strategy, the Chandra Data Archive team is working on two specific experimental projects that will demonstrate their potential while contributing to the maximization of the scientific return of the Chandra mission.
