sci19003 — Announcement

The HCV Explorer: Enabling Discoveries in the Hubble Catalog of Variables (HCV)

15 May 2019

Deborah Baines, Maria Arevalo, Javier Durand, Raul Gutierrez, Bruno Merin (ESA/ESAC), Paule Sonnentrucker (ESA/STScI)

The HCV will be available for download both from eHST/ESAC and MAST. Within the eHST framework, individual object searches will be enabled by the HCV Explorer, a visualisation tool designed and implemented at the ESAC Science Data Centre (ESDC). The tool will offer interactive and connected plotting of the HCV catalogue on the sky, in a table and in plots, including light curves, with the aim of aiding the exploration of the catalogue and enhancing the user experience through visual and intuitive exploration.

Within the first version of the HCV Explorer, users will be able to search by target name or coordinates, visualise the catalogue on the sky around the chosen target, view variability information and select the background images (HiPS) to be displayed. A results table will be shown for the sources in the sky field of view, with functionalities such as column selection, column sorting and downloading the data. When a source is selected either on the sky or in the table, the associated light curves in each available filter will be plotted and will be easily downloadable. Simultaneously, the tool will also show an interactive plot representing the variability of the source and its associated neighbours, along with non-variable sources. An example of the HCV Explorer interface is shown here. The HCV Explorer will be released in September 2019, together with the HCV.

Contacts

Antonella Nota 
ESA HST Project Scientist, STScI 
Email: hubblenewseurope@stsci.edu