Star images helping to save Vatican books
Some of the texts in the Vatican library are more than 1000 years old. Credits: Vatican Library
(PhysOrg.com) -- Antique books in the Vatican Library are being digitised to preserve them for future generations using a technique developed through ESA to store satellite images of the sky.
The Library needed a way of scanning the delicate old manuscripts and storing the files so that they could still be read in hundreds of years. The answer was the special file format used by ESA for most of its scientific satellites.
In the 1970s ESA and NASA scientists developed FITS, the flexible image transport system format, stemming from radio astronomy. FITS is now used to store data from many space missions.
Any kind of data you can use for astronomy can fit inside this format, says Pedro Osuna, Head of ESAs scientific archives.
That made it ESAs top choice for storing the mountains of information from almost all of the agencys astronomy missions. The pioneering Herschel, Integral, XMM-Newton and SOHO space observatories all use it.
In this digital era, finding a storage format for the ages is a big challenge facing researchers, archivists and librarians the world over. FITS is the answer.
If you have a tool that can read FITS today, you can read FITS files from 20 years ago, Mr. Osuna says. Its always backwards compatible.
Scanning old texts takes patience, care and high technology. Credits: Vatican Library
Today, the format developed to save images of the stars is being tailored for a very different purpose: preserving one of the worlds largest collections of ancient books.Most space missions, like the Hubble Space Telescope, use FITS to store and study scientific data, says Giuseppe Di Persio of Italys National Institute for Astrophysics.
Dr. Di Persio is now working with the Vatican Library in Rome on a pilot project to scan part of its massive collection, saving it as FITS files to make sure they are available to future generations.
Founded in 1475 and one of the worlds oldest libraries, the Vatican Library houses tens of thousands of manuscripts and codices from before the invention of the printing press some are 1800 years old.
In addition to making the contents more accessible, digitising will help to preserve the originals.
Its very dangerous for the manuscripts every time someone touches them, says Luciano Ammenti, Director of the Vaticans Information Technology Center, spearheading the project.
He chose FITS because of its longevity and also because it is open source not linked to any one company.
The format also lends itself to the fragile, ancient tomes in the Vaticans collection. Pressed against a plate of glass, the old pages can be distorted, but scanner software developed for the project automatically calculates the different angles, resulting in an accurate, flat image.
The secret of the format is that the instructions needed to read and process the data are in a text header tacked on top of the data. In a century, when computers will presumably be very different, that means all the information needed to decode them is in the same files.
FITS can always be read without the need for conversion to another format, which could lose information or be incompatible with future systems.
As Dr. Di Persio says: Once FITS, always FITS.
Provided by
European Space Agency
-
From lemons to lemonade: Reaction uses carbon dioxide to make carbon-based semiconductor,
32 comments
-
Thioridazine kills cancer stem cells in human while avoiding toxic side-effects of conventional cancer treatments,
3 comments
-
SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station (Update),
42 comments
-
Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea,
31 comments
-
SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update),
4 comments
-
Need a rigid insulation material???
23 hours ago
-
magnets or EMF in car bumpers to protect from fender bender
May 26, 2012
-
length of wire in a coil of known dimensions?
May 25, 2012
-
India Engineering Powerhouse
May 25, 2012
-
electromagnet core dereference between hard and soft iron
May 25, 2012
-
Measuring water pressure in an open tank
May 24, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
More news stories
Browser wars flare in mobile space
The browser wars are heating up again, but this time the fight is for dominance of the mobile Internet.
15 hours ago |
5 / 5 (2) |
3
Probability of contamination from severe nuclear reactor accidents is higher than expected: study
Catastrophic nuclear accidents such as the core meltdowns in Chernobyl and Fukushima are more likely to happen than previously assumed. Based on the operating hours of all civil nuclear reactors and the number ...
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 22, 2012 |
3.6 / 5 (25) |
56
|
HyperSolar shows dirty water no barrier to power world
(Phys.org) -- The Santa Barbara, California, company, HyperSolar, is set to transparently share the ups and downs of its research experiences toward the companys ultimate vision, successfully producing ...
SpotterRF debuts Radar Backpack Kit (w/ Video)
(Phys.org) -- SpotterRF has announced a special radar backpack kit designed to enhance situational awareness for soldiers on the ground. The company says its special radar is designed for warfighters as part ...
Tesla to launch electric sedan in US on June 22
Tesla Motors said Tuesday it would begin deliveries of "the world's first premium electric sedan" on June 22, slightly ahead of schedule.
Technology / Energy & Green Tech
May 22, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (12) |
18
Stunning image of smallest possible five-ringed structure
Scientists have created and imaged the smallest possible five-ringed structure about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair and you'll probably recognise its shape.
'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at ...
Change in developmental timing was crucial in the evolutionary shift from dinosaurs to birds: study
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that ...
Computer model used to pinpoint prime materials for efficient carbon capture
When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if it will be an expensive undertaking.
T cells 'hunt' parasites like animal predators seek prey, study shows
By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement ...
Land and sea species differ in climate change response: study
(Phys.org) -- Marine and terrestrial species will likely differ in their responses to climate warming, new research by Simon Fraser University and Australia’s University of Tasmania has found.
