Building the infrastructure for the virtual observatory

The goal of the virtual observatory is to provide seamless, efficient access to astronomical data archives, catalogs, bibliographic services, and computational resources worldwide. This goal can be realized only through the development of a sophisticated information technology infrastructure. The infrastructure must accommodate the integration of diverse data types from potentially thousands of sites and services, capitalizing on emerging computational grid technologies for resource allocation and management. This paper describes the major IT challenges facing the virtual observatory and suggests a middleware architecture capable of supporting its scientific objectives.