How Big Data Connects Us to the Universe: Sania Naik

The cosmic landscape is largely considered the “final frontier,” brimming with new worlds yet to be discovered and questions waiting to be conquered. In a world dependent on technology and creative design, we’ve opened our minds to new possibilities both on and off our planet. In fact, the rate at which we propose ideas is so fast we often underestimate the skill required for its implication. For the framework of space, its sheer size is so great we have yet to uncover a fraction of its secrets. In the past several decades, little outside our own galactic vicinity has been considered; years have gone into the construction of shuttles and telescopes making small steps towards an infinitely expanding answer. Each development is crucial in reaching our goal, and progress has been moving faster than ever before---with the evolution of big data to thank.

Big data is indispensable in today’s world, where floods of facts and figures constantly rush into businesses pending analysis. The budding field involves the organization of data sets too large to be processed with typical software into a single large database for future extraction. When the information being stored is regarding structures millions of light years away (with only general knowledge to reference), this task is made still harder. Data aggregation on this scale allows for collaboration of teams across the globe synthesizing visual, mathematical, and theoretical facts. This has sent astronomical projects previously on hold into warp speed: on August 4, 2020, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman space observatory was outlined to gather data up to 500 times faster than the famous Hubble Space Telescope! These upcoming programs transform our timeline in terms of the search for extraterrestrial life and exoplanets1.

Just two days after NASA’s announcement, Japan’s Subaru Telescope reported a galaxy in the earliest stage of development ever witnessed. This feat would have never been achieved without the use of big data, designed to cross-reference computerized models with the incoming stream of information. Through this discovery, we’ve gained fresh insight into the birth of our own galaxy, and its possible appearance 14 billion years ago. In the coming years, months, or perhaps even weeks we are bound to reveal extensive truths about what lies in the far-flung corners of the universe...the foundation of these findings will undeniably be big data.

But is it really worth it?

Even with a “big data approach,” days go into retrieving information from the core database. From there, careful adjustments need to be made in photo contrast, statistics, and digital storage. The work is exhaustive, and poses the question of its suitability in an already convoluted field. In truth, the results of this research far outweigh the labor required; any understanding of our universe is pivotal in order to answer questions regarding our own planet. The study of Mars, for instance, can provide us an option for inhabitation in the case of Earth’s environmental decline. Other phenomena remaining open to the influence of big data is guaranteed to shave years off of timelines for discovery and vehicular exploration. In these ways, the selling point of big data is not the speed of its execution, but rather the long-term benefits of its use. Statistics show little without a “bigger picture” to connect it to..in the case of space, uncharted territory signifies a new era of larger-than-life relations.

Obvious questions linked to our origin have lived in our minds for centuries: are we truly alone in this world? How did we get here? What must we do to begin our universal expedition? Recent theories have uncovered concepts almost inconceivable to the common mind: what about a multiverse? Can the fabric of space-time be torn? From the origins of dark energy to reionization, we have started a ceaseless journey to explore the cosmos---with new technology as our driving force.