Toward an auditory Virtual Observatory (preprint)

TL;DR

This paper explores the development of an auditory Virtual Observatory by integrating sonification techniques with astronomical data, enhancing data accessibility and analysis through sound, and includes prototypes, case studies, and user feedback.

Contribution

It introduces sonification prototypes for astronomical data, combining automation and machine learning to advance the concept of an auditory Virtual Observatory.

Findings

Prototypes successfully sonify stellar libraries and light curves.

User study shows positive feedback from both music and astronomy experts.

Machine learning enhances the automation and quality of sonification processes.

Abstract

The exploration of the universe is experiencing a huge development thanks to the success and possibilities of today's major space telescope missions which can generate measurements and images with a resolution 100 times higher than their precedents. This big ecosystem of observations, aimed at expanding the limits of known science, can be analyzed using personal computers thanks to the implementation of interoperable Virtual Observatory (VO) technologies and massive portals of stellar catalogs and databases. In this context of global analysis of astronomical big data, sonification has the potential of adding a complementary dimension to visualization, enhancing the accessibility of the archives, and offering an alternative strategy to be used when overlapping issues and masking effects are found in purely graphical representations. This article presents a collection of sonification and musification prototypes that explore the case studies of the MILES and STELIB stellar libraries from the Spanish Virtual Observatory (SVO), and the Kepler Objects of Interest light curve database from the Space Telescope Science Institute archive (STScI). The work makes use of automation, machine learning, and deep learning algorithms to offer a palette of resources that could be used in future developments oriented towards an auditory virtual observatory proposal. It includes a user study that provides qualitative and quantitative feedback from specialized and non-specialized users in the fields of Music and Astronomy.