Large Collaborations. Astronomy: A Collective Effort

Science is the answer humanity has given to its drive to know where we come from and where we are going. Every culture has developed theories about the origin of the Universe, the creation of the Earth, and the origin of life itself, for which they have looked for answers in the sky and the stars.

It might seem that life for the astronomical community is nothing but gazing at the sky and meditating, but the truth is that it has always demanded rigor and long working days. About 2200 years ago, Hipparchus came up with a way of understanding the stars’ movements, through the creation of the oldest star catalog ever known—where the positions of about 800 stars were recorded. We don’t know exactly how stars were measured in this catalog, it was possible that an armillary sphere was used—a mechanical device with rotating rings that represent different parts of the celestial sphere. This job was only possible  through rigorous and thorough work. 

The observations of the sky that Copernicus recorded allowed to establish in the 16^th century that the Earth revolves around the Sun, considered one of the biggest scientific revolutions in history. The model had been formulated 18 centuries before by Aristarchus of Samos, but it was Copernicus’ work that proved it true thanks to the acquisition of about 60 observations—the work of a lifetime—whose results were published in 1543, a little before his death. 

As knowledge advanced, it became evident that joint efforts were needed, not only to do the observations but to process and understand their results. Thus, for example, the Harvard College Observatory hired about eighty women to study the stars in photographs recorded on glass plates. Among these pioneer women—famously known as “the Computers”—were Williamina Fleming, Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and Antonia Maury, who discovered galaxies and nebulae, and also created methods to measure distances in space. 

Mexico also participated in large collaborations around that time. The Carte du Ciel project was the main research line at the National Astronomical Observatory (OAN) from 1887 to 1947. This international project had the goal of making the deepest all-sky catalog up to that date, which required the collaboration of observatories from different places in the world to adequately observe the entire celestial sphere. 18 observatories from 11 countries participated in the project, storing tens of thousands of photographic plates of the sky. Among others, this project was the seed for what is known as the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the biggest group of astronomers to this day. It is also the institution that establishes the names of planets and stars, as well as the ultimate discussion forum for standards in astronomy. The 2006 General Assembly of the IAU established the demotion of Pluto to a dwarf planet after a show of hands. Two positions were presented at the debate: there was a defender and a detractor on the planet status for Pluto. As an anecdote for history, the person defending Pluto proudly carried a stuffed doll of Mickey Mouse’s dog—and raised it while sharing the arguments in favor of the planet status. Despite this gesture that charmed the members of the IAU, they concluded that a planet’s orbit around the Sun must be clear of other objects, which is not the case of Pluto’s. This finally ended a debate that started with the finding of other “planets” similar to Pluto that would’ve had to be included as such in the Solar System if we kept considering Pluto a planet. 

Astronomy is one of the very first sciences practiced by humanity, as well as one of those that have organized amateur groups throughout the world with no strict academic training. These collectives make countless contributions [see box]. For example, the Galaxy Zoo project—common people helping scientists classify galaxies registered by different telescopes—has had over a hundred thousand people that have made nearly a million morphological classifications of galaxies, making spectacular discoveries along the way. 

The astronomical community todal is possibly the most international and organized one areas among the sciences. We get organized in collaborations with the goal of creating new infrastructures. We share these infrastructures to make new measurements and have an efficient scientific exploitation of the observations to contribute in the best way possible to the advancement of knowledge. Astronomy is a pioneer in massive data storage for big databases, so the astronomical community can use them for numerous scientific studies beyond the ones proposed initially. This makes astronomy afield of knowledge within the reach of collectives with lesser resources, contributing to the development of underprivileged communities.

---