Astro-COLIBRI 2 -- an advanced platform for real-time multi-messenger discoveries

TL;DR

Astro-COLIBRI 2 is an advanced platform designed for real-time multi-messenger astrophysical event detection, alert evaluation, and follow-up coordination, enhancing the study of transient celestial phenomena.

Contribution

This paper introduces Astro-COLIBRI 2, a comprehensive platform that integrates alert management and follow-up coordination tools for multi-messenger astronomy, with documented community usage since 2021.

Findings

Effective alert evaluation and follow-up coordination demonstrated

Supports both professional and amateur astronomers in transient observations

Enhances multi-messenger astrophysics research capabilities

Abstract

The study of flaring astrophysical events in the multi-messenger approach requires instantaneous follow-up observations to better understand the nature of these events through complementary observational data. We present Astro-COLIBRI as a platform that integrates specific tools in the real-time multi-messenger ecosystem. The Astro-COLIBRI platform bundles and evaluates alerts about transients from various channels. It further automates the coordination of follow-up observations by providing and linking detailed information through its comprehensible graphical user interface. We present the functionalities with documented examples of Astro-COLIBRI usage through the community since its public release in August 2021. We highlight the use cases of Astro-COLIBRI for planning follow-up observations by professional and amateur astronomers, as well as checking predictions from theoretical models.