The world-wide telescope

All astronomy data and literature will soon be online and accessible via th e Internet. The community is building the Virtual Observatory, an organizat ion of this worldwide data into a coherent whole that can be accessed by an yone, in any form, from anywhere. The resulting system will dramatically im prove our ability to do multi-spectral and temporal studies that integrate data from multiple instruments. The Virtual Observatory data also provide a wonderful base for teaching astronomy, scientific discovery, and computati onal science.