An Investigation of the Benefit of XML Technologies in Astronomical Data Interpretation

This research work has demonstrated that from a variety of astronomical data sources and by using XML Technologies an advanced construct of usefully structured data can be produced in an XML Document. From this work an XML Schema has been developed in such a way that, in conjunction with the ROAD software also developed, it not only handles the variety of data used in this research through the use of XSLT transformation files but is also capable of being extended to include the full breadth of astronomical data storage content in the future, in all branches of astronomy. This research is in effect a proof of concept which is able to point the way towards the development of a W3C eligible XML Schema to be used as a standard in the astronomical research and industry sectors.