WD-Ontology

[Ed Shaya]

Andrea Preite Martinez wrote:
> A Working Draft on
> 
> Ontology of Astronomical Object Types, version 1.0
> 
> has been uploaded in the Document section of IVOA
> http://ivoa.net/Documents/latest/AstrObjectOntology.html
> 
> and in the Semantics WG twiki page
> http://www.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaSemantics  .
> 
> In this page you can also find the ontology file (.owl) that can be
> explored/edited with the protégé browser/editor
> http://protege.stanford.edu/overview/protege-owl.html .
> 
> The document and the Ontology are open to discussion and contributions.
> 
> Note that the ontology is made of "defined" concepts, and only a fraction
> of them has been defined, for the moment only in terms of components and/or
> morphology and/or processes.
> Indeed, there are still 87 astronomical concepts that are missing an 
> NS-condition (Necessary&Sufficient)
> 
> I then ask for the contribution of the members of the WG and of the 
> scientific
> community to help finding the necessary and/or sufficient conditions to 
> define the concepts.
> What is needed is a complete but concise description in plain text of 
> the concepts in terms of components/ morphology / physical processes / 
> observational properties and/or ...
> 
> An example:
> CataclysmicVariable: close binary, components WD/subGiant and LateType 
> Star,
> variability due to thermonuclear processes...
> 
> The concepts without NS-conditions (but sometimes already with N or S 
> conditions) are the following:
There are dangers in defining the necessary and sufficient conditions, 
particularly if one requires too many necessaries.  You can end up with 
things that are not in any class although they are so close to one that 
ordinarily one would include them.  For instance, what if it is like a 
cataclysmicVariable but not quite a LateType star. One also run into 
whether or not to use strictly observational qualities or interpreted 
qualities.  As in, what if it erupts and has emissions like a 
cataclysmic variable but it is too far away to discern the individual 
components?  Can you still call it a CV?

On the other hand, if we don't make clear and distinct boundaries you 
are left with a system that is too fuzzy to do any good.

Having noted these difficulties, in the grand tradition of semantics, we 
simply push forward and appreciate that we can always pull back on some 
of these  NS qualities or define both strict and loose versions of each 
class, as in StandardCalaclysmicVariable/TentativeCataclysmicVariable.
> 
> AssociationOfStars - alias (equivalent class)  StellarAssociation 
Loose concentration of young stars (how loose? 1-100 per cubic pc?), but 
may contain 1 or more StellarClusters within it.
subclasses -
	OB-Association - association with many O and B stars (massive stars)
	R-Association - contains medium mass stars with reflection nebulae
	T-Association - contains only low mass stars including some T-Tauri stars

> ClusterOfGalaxies - alias GalaxyCluster
Observationally - a region with a concentration of galaxies several 
times the neighboring background density with similar galaxy redshifts.
Theoretically - a collapsed and virialized system of galaxies
subclasses
	AbellCluster - there are two definitions here
		a) A cluster in the Abell Catalog
		b) A cluster with the criteria given by Abell for his catalog
	Perhaps a) should be called an AbellCatalogCluster

> SuperClusterOfGalaxies 
	A 3-d region of contiguous overdensity on Mpc scales.  Usually these 
contain several clusters, but this should not be the definition becuase 
a) the Local Supercluster contains only 1 cluster b) if one found a 
large contiguous overdensity without a cluster you probably would still 
want to classify it as a supercluster.

> ClusterOfStars - alias StarCluster.  
Observational - A tight system of stars with less than 10^9 stars.
Theoretical - A system of stars formed out of a single cloud of gas and 
with less mass than a galaxy (that is, .

> GlobularCluster - 
A roughly spherical ClusterOfStars with 10^4 - 10^9 stars and with an 
orbit that takes it out of the plane of its parent galaxy.
[Normally the definition would include the idea that it is composed of 
old stars, but blue globular clusters in N1375 and other galaxies show 
that there are exceptions.  Also, when globular clusters were young they 
had young stars and they were still globular clusters.]

> OpenCluster - alias GalacticCluster
ClusterOfStars with young stars and with center of mass orbit that stays 
in the plane.

> GalaxiesGroup 
This should be GalaxyGroup - alias GroupOfGalaxies.
A system with on the order of 10 galaxies separated by 10-100 galaxy 
diameters [Hopkins, J. 1976 Glossary of Astronomy and Astrophysics]

I stop here to rest and wait for comments.
Ed
> Galaxy
> ActiveGalaxyNucleus
> Blazar
> BLLacObject
> OpticallyViolentlyVariableObject
> LINERTypeActiveGalaxyNucleus
> SeyfertGalaxy
> Seyfert1Galaxy
> Seyfert2Galaxy
> BlueCompactGalaxy
> EmissionLineGalaxy
> HighRedshiftGalaxy
> HIIGalaxy
> LowSurfaceBrightnessGalaxy
> QuasiStellarObject
> StarburstGalaxy
> SpectroscopicBinary
> XRayBinary
> InterStellarMedium
> EmissionNebula
> HIRegion
> HIRegionCold
> HIRegionWarm
> MolecularCloud
> BokGlobule
> DarkCloud
> ReflexionNebula
> StellarObject
> BrownDwarf
> Star
> PostAsymptoticGiantBranchStar
> RedGiant
> AsymptoticGiantBranchStar
> CarbonStar
> OHIREnvelopeTypeStar
> STypeStar
> RVTauri
> PeculiarStar
> CHEnvelopeTypeStar
> BeStar
> WolfRayetStar
> HorizontalBranchStar
> StellarRemnant
> NeutronStar
> Pulsar
> AccretionPoweredPulsar
> Magnetar
> RotationPoweredPulsar
> StellarBlackHole
> WhiteDwarf
> YoungStellarObject
> PreMainSequenceStar
> HerbigHaro
> TTauri
> ClassicalTTauri
> WeakLineTTauri
> ProtoStar
> SubStellarObject
> BrownDwarf
> NonStellarBody
> Asteroid
> Comet
> Planet
> CataclysmicVariable
> DQHerCataclysmicVariable
> DwarfNova
> Nova
> NovaLikeObject
> RapidIrregularVariableStar
> IrregularVariableStar
> RapidIrregularVariableStar
> BetaCepheid
> LTypeIrregularStar
> MiraCeti
> SemiRegularPulsatingStar
> RRLyrae
> WVir
> BYDraconis
> EllipsoidalVariableStar
> SymbioticStar
> 
> 
> P.S.:
> I think we can envisage a half-session in the spring IVOA meeting in 
> Beijin dedicated to the ontology and its applications.
> 
> Andrea
> 
> =================================================================================== 
> 
> Andrea Preite Martinez                 
> andrea.preitemartinez at iasf-roma.inaf.it
> IASF                                   Tel.IASF:+39.06.4993.4641
> Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100        Tel.CDS :+33.3.90242452
> I-00133 Roma                           Cell.1  :+39.320.43.15.383
>                                        Cell.2  :+39.
> =================================================================================== 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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