July 2019
The goal of this project, the Cometary Observation Metadata Archive (COMA), is to develop tools that will allow researchers to easily access imaging data on more than 500 solar system small bodies since 1985 from telescopes around the world, including Hawaiʻi, Chile, India, and Arizona. This dataset can provide fundamental information that can address big picture questions. For example, the investigation of primitive bodies is key to understanding the initial stages, conditions, and processes of solar system formation, as well as the sources of the Earth’s organics.
COMA is funded by NASA and led by Karen Meech of the Institute for Astronomy, and its user interface and data visualization is being developed by James Hutchinson and Jason Leigh at the Laboratory for Advanced Visualization & Applications.