Space Telescope Science Institute Selects Objectivity/DB for COMPASS Celestial Mapping Project.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 1998--Objectivity, Inc., the leading provider of distributed, scalable object databases, today announced that Objectivity/DB has been deployed in the COMPASS project at the Space Telescope Science Institute (ST ScI). COMPASS (Catalogs of Objects and Measured Parameters from All Sky Surveys) is a database for the production and distribution of the second-generation Guide Star Catalog (GSC-II).

The ST ScI is responsible for the operation of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). By providing precise reference information about star fields anywhere in the sky, the celestial maps implicit in the GSC concept are used to assure that HST is properly positioned for observing its selected targets. Additionally, the GSC-II is to be used to support target acquisition and pointing at many of the new ground-based telescopes currently under construction, including the 8-meter Gemini telescopes in Chile and Hawaii.

The Guide Star Catalog is a collaborative project with the Astronomico Osservatorio di Torino (Italy), the European Coordinating Facility of the European Space Agency (Germany), and other international partners.

The COMPASS project is based on the digitization of about 6000 photographic sky survey plates (itself a 4-terabyte dataset), from which about 10**9 objects will be identified to the limits required for HST and other telescopes, plus a comparable number of additional objects that will exploit the opportunities that this dataset offers for astrophysical research.

In order to store this data in small accessible units that are logically structured on the sky, the COMPASS database is partitioned into 32,768 regions (each an individual database in an Objectivity federation). Every region contains approximately 50,000 objects, each representing an observed star or galaxy in the sky. The final database size is expected to occupy 4 terabytes. The data, which consists of plate source measurements and their calibrations, is directly traceable to the original photographic images and the reference systems on which the calibrations are based.

"The COMPASS project is another example of how Objectivity/DB is utilized within the scientific community for very large databases involving complex data," said David Caplan, president and CEO of Objectivity. "Scientific applications such as COMPASS are validating Objectivity/DB's scalability for other market segments that need to protect their database investments with a product that they will not outgrow. We're excited to be an enabling component of Space Telescope Institute's vast digital map of the sky and all-sky catalog."

"Our most demanding database requirements come from the calibrations and the need to optimize them by using iterative techniques," according to Barry Lasker, GSC Project Scientist at ST ScI. The lead developer for the project, Gretchen Greene, stated that "Objectivity/DB has a very robust kernel that is well-matched to our science goals. The COMPASS database, built on Objectivity/DB, is exciting because it is one of the first large scale production astronomical databases to utilize this latest object-oriented technology."

More About Space Telescope Science Institute

The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under contract to NASA and is located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The Web site of ST ScI may be consulted for information about the HST, its science program, the education and public outreach programs associated with HST, and the GSC project. The URL is http://www.stsci.edu.

More About Objectivity, Inc.

Objectivity, Inc. is the leading provider of distributed, scalable object databases with unrivaled support for mixed-language development and mixed-hardware environments. Objectivity boosts developer productivity, shortens time to market, and provides the ideal platform for mission-critical applications requiring continuous performance and adaptability to future technologies.

Objectivity, Inc. is headquartered in Mountain View, California, USA. For more information, contact Objectivity by e-mail at [e-mail], on the World Wide Web at http://www.objectivity.com or by calling [phone]. -0- Note to editors: All other product names contained herein remain the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

NOTE TO EDITORS: The fourth paragraph of this news release contains a numerical figure: 10**9. There are two asterisks between the "10" and "9" which may not appear properly in some systems.

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