AWS and Chile Launch the Data Observatory Project

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been selected as a founding member of Chile’s Data Observatory project, an innovative public-private alliance with the Chilean Government. The alliance is being created to consolidate, analyze real-time, and archive astronomy data streams from all wavelengths across all Chilean observatories in the Atacama Desert, where 70 percent of the world’s telescopes are located due to the ideal observation conditions that the geographical area provides. AWS will host the images and data that are recorded and downloaded from Chile’s world-renowned telescopes, which are continuously studying space.

The Data Observatory’s mission is to work as a nonprofit organization hosting a large-scale public dataset, known as a data lake, on AWS that will enable maximum utilization of astronomical data by the global scientific community, private industry, and the public, and will facilitate data access, analysis, visualization, and governance. Part of AWS’s role in the five-year project will be helping the Data Observatory develop solutions and applications using the open data hosted through the AWS Public Dataset Program to provide unique experiences to anyone interested in astronomy, like a virtual reality immersion experience to witness the universe in 3D.

AWS will provide AWS Credits for research, support, and education through a variety of programs that are already available in Latin America, including AWS Educate, AWS Academy, and AWS Training and Certification to support the team of data scientists working in Chilean observatories.

AWS’s participation in this project is just a part of several initiatives and the long-term commitment that the company has with Chile and Latin America, uniting private and public sectors through the power of cloud computing services in order to foster IT modernization, innovation, and workforce development.