Astronomy

Definition

The term “Big Data” is severally defined and redefined by many in the fields of scientific observations and the curation and management thereof. Probably first coined in reference to the large volumes of images and similar information-rich records promised by present-day and near-future large-scale, robotic surveys of the night sky, the term has come to be used in reference to the data that result from almost any modern experiment in astronomy, and in so doing has lost most of the special attributes which it was originally intended to convey. There is no doubt that “big” is only relative, and scientific data have always presented the operator with challenges of size and volume, so a reasonable definition is also a relative one: “big data” refers to any set or series of data that are too large to be managed by existing methods and tools without a major rethink and redevelopment of technique and technology, be they hardware or software.

According to the above definition, “big...