Once FITS, Always FITS? Astronomical Infrastructure in Transition

TL;DR

The paper discusses the evolution and challenges of the FITS file format in astronomy, highlighting how technological advances are prompting a reevaluation of its compatibility and governance.

Contribution

It analyzes three key inflection points in FITS governance, emphasizing the need for adaptation to modern astronomical data and computational demands.

Findings

FITS was initially successful for data sharing and compatibility.

New data types challenge FITS' traditional structure.

Governance issues hinder format updates in the face of technological change.

Abstract

The FITS file format has become the de facto standard for sharing, analyzing, and archiving astronomy data over the last four decades. FITS was adopted by astronomers in the early 1980s to overcome incompatibilities between operating systems. On the back of FITS' success, astronomical data became both backwards compatible and easily shareable. However, new advances in astronomical instrumentation, computational technologies, and analytic techniques have resulted in new data that do not work well within the traditional FITS format. Tensions have arisen between the desire to update the format to meet new analytic challenges and adherence to the original edict for FITS files to be backwards compatible. We examine three inflection points in the governance of FITS: a) initial development and success, b) widespread acceptance and governance by the working group, and c) the challenges to FITS in a new era of increasing data and computational complexity within astronomy.