TheSkyNet POGS - Revision history

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	{{Infobox software		{{Infobox software
	\| name = theSkyNet POGS		\| name = theSkyNet POGS
	\| logo =		\| logo = POGS-Reverse.png
	\| logo caption =		\| logo caption =
	\| screenshot = NGC 2703 PanS.jpg		\| screenshot = NGC 2703 PanS.jpg

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	\| operating system = Windows, Unix/Linux, macOS, Android<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />		\| operating system = Windows, Unix/Linux, macOS, Android<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />
	\| size =		\| size =
	\| stats as of = {{Start date and age\|~~2014~~\|10\|13}}		\| stats as of = {{Start date and age\|2018\|04\|07}}
	\| average performance =		\| average performance = 94884.68 GigaFLOPS
	\| active users = ~~5,268~~		\| active users = 7711
	\| total users = ~~13,770~~		\| total users = 65332
	\| active hosts = ~~16,508~~		\| active hosts = 19904
	\| total hosts = ~~40,847~~		\| total hosts = 361195
	\| rac =		\| rac =
	\| credit per day =		\| credit per day =

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	{{Lowercase title}}		{{Lowercase title}}

	'''theSkyNet POGS''' ('''P'''an-STARRS '''O'''ptical '''G'''alaxy '''S'''urvey) was a [[wikipedia:volunteer computing\|volunteer computing]] project that used [[wikipedia:BOINC\|BOINC]] to measure the physical properties of tens of thousands of nearby galaxies. It was run by the [[wikipedia:International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research\|International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research]] (ICRAR), a joint venture of [[wikipedia:Curtin University\|Curtin University]] and the [[wikipedia:University of Western Australia\|University of Western Australia]], as one of two research projects under the umbrella of '''theSkyNet''', ICRAR's public astronomy outreach initiative.<ref name="wiki-theskynet">{{Cite web \|title=TheSkyNet \|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheSkyNet \|website=Wikipedia \|access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref> POGS combined imaging from three space telescopes, [[wikipedia:GALEX\|GALEX]], [[wikipedia:Pan-STARRS\|Pan-STARRS1]] and [[wikipedia:Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer\|WISE]], to build a multi-wavelength, pixel-resolved atlas of galaxy properties such as stellar mass, star formation rate and dust content.<ref name="vinsen2013" /> theSkyNet POGS was the first Australian-based project to be made available to the public on BOINC.<ref name="icrar-t2">{{Cite web \|title=theSkyNet: T2 is Born \|url=https://www.icrar.org/theskynet-t2-born/ \|publisher=ICRAR \|date=2012-09-13 \|access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref>		'''[https://web.archive.org/web/20130725025029/http://pogs.theskynet.org/pogs/ theSkyNet POGS]''' ('''P'''an-STARRS '''O'''ptical '''G'''alaxy '''S'''urvey) was a [[wikipedia:volunteer computing\|volunteer computing]] project that used [[wikipedia:BOINC\|BOINC]] to measure the physical properties of tens of thousands of nearby galaxies. It was run by the [[wikipedia:International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research\|International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research]] (ICRAR), a joint venture of [[wikipedia:Curtin University\|Curtin University]] and the [[wikipedia:University of Western Australia\|University of Western Australia]], as one of two research projects under the umbrella of '''theSkyNet''', ICRAR's public astronomy outreach initiative.<ref name="wiki-theskynet">{{Cite web \|title=TheSkyNet \|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheSkyNet \|website=Wikipedia \|access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref> POGS combined imaging from three space telescopes, [[wikipedia:GALEX\|GALEX]], [[wikipedia:Pan-STARRS\|Pan-STARRS1]] and [[wikipedia:Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer\|WISE]], to build a multi-wavelength, pixel-resolved atlas of galaxy properties such as stellar mass, star formation rate and dust content.<ref name="vinsen2013" /> theSkyNet POGS was the first Australian-based project to be made available to the public on BOINC.<ref name="icrar-t2">{{Cite web \|title=theSkyNet: T2 is Born \|url=https://www.icrar.org/theskynet-t2-born/ \|publisher=ICRAR \|date=2012-09-13 \|access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref>

	The project completed its data-processing goals in May 2018 and is no longer distributing work.<ref name="pogscomplete" />		The project completed its data-processing goals in May 2018 and is no longer distributing work.<ref name="pogscomplete" />

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	\| dependencies = None documented		\| dependencies = None documented
	\| developer = [[wikipedia:International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research\|International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research]] (ICRAR), led by Associate Professor Kevin Vinsen<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />		\| developer = [[wikipedia:International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research\|International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research]] (ICRAR), led by Associate Professor Kevin Vinsen<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />
	\| author = Kevin Vinsen and David Thilker<ref name="vinsen2013">{{Cite journal \|authors=Vinsen, Kevin and David Thilker \|title=A BOINC based, citizen-science project for pixel spectral energy distribution fitting of resolved galaxies in multi-wavelength surveys \|journal=Astronomy and Computing \|volume=3 \|pages=~~1{{ndash}}12~~ \|year=2013 \|doi=10.1016/j.ascom.2013.10.001 \|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2213133713000280}}</ref>		\| author = Kevin Vinsen and David Thilker<ref name="vinsen2013">{{Cite journal \|authors=Vinsen, Kevin and David Thilker \|title=A BOINC based, citizen-science project for pixel spectral energy distribution fitting of resolved galaxies in multi-wavelength surveys \|journal=Astronomy and Computing \|volume=3 \|pages=1—12 \|year=2013 \|doi=10.1016/j.ascom.2013.10.001 \|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2213133713000280}}</ref>
	\| sponsor = ICRAR, a joint venture of [[wikipedia:Curtin University\|Curtin University]] and the [[wikipedia:University of Western Australia\|University of Western Australia]]<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />		\| sponsor = ICRAR, a joint venture of [[wikipedia:Curtin University\|Curtin University]] and the [[wikipedia:University of Western Australia\|University of Western Australia]]<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />
	\| maintainer = N/A (project concluded in 2018)		\| maintainer = N/A (project concluded in 2018)

Al Piskun at 12:16, 16 July 2026

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	# {{Cite journal \|authors=Chambers, K. C., E. A. Magnier, N. Metcalfe \|title=The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys \|year=2016 \|doi=10.48550/ARXIV.1612.05560 \|url=https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.05560}}		# {{Cite journal \|authors=Chambers, K. C., E. A. Magnier, N. Metcalfe \|title=The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys \|year=2016 \|doi=10.48550/ARXIV.1612.05560 \|url=https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.05560}}
	# {{Cite journal \|authors=Thilker, David A., K. Vinsen and PS1 Galaxy Properties Key Project \|title=Early science from the Pan-STARRS1 Optical Galaxy Survey (POGS): Maps of stellar mass and star formation rate surface density obtained from distributed-computing pixel-SED fitting \|year=2014 \|url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AAS...22311611T}}		# {{Cite journal \|authors=Thilker, David A., K. Vinsen and PS1 Galaxy Properties Key Project \|title=Early science from the Pan-STARRS1 Optical Galaxy Survey (POGS): Maps of stellar mass and star formation rate surface density obtained from distributed-computing pixel-SED fitting \|year=2014 \|url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AAS...22311611T}}
	# {{Cite journal \|authors=Vinsen, Kevin and David Thilker \|title=A BOINC based, citizen-science project for pixel spectral energy distribution fitting of resolved galaxies in multi-wavelength surveys \|journal=Astronomy and Computing \|volume=3 \|pages=~~1{{ndash}}12~~ \|year=2013 \|doi=10.1016/j.ascom.2013.10.001 \|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2213133713000280}}		# {{Cite journal \|authors=Vinsen, Kevin and David Thilker \|title=A BOINC based, citizen-science project for pixel spectral energy distribution fitting of resolved galaxies in multi-wavelength surveys \|journal=Astronomy and Computing \|volume=3 \|pages=1—12 \|year=2013 \|doi=10.1016/j.ascom.2013.10.001 \|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2213133713000280}}

	== See also ==		== See also ==

Al Piskun: first light

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first light

New page

{{Infobox software
| name = theSkyNet POGS
| logo =
| logo caption =
| screenshot = NGC 2703 PanS.jpg
| caption = NGC 2703, a nearby spiral galaxy imaged by Pan-STARRS1. Galaxies like this one were the targets that POGS volunteers helped fit pixel by pixel.
| description = theSkyNet POGS (the Pan-STARRS1 Optical Galaxy Survey) was a completed Astronomy BOINC project run by [[wikipedia:International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research|ICRAR]] that combined GALEX, Pan-STARRS1 and WISE imaging to measure the resolved stellar mass, star formation rate and dust content of roughly 100,000 nearby galaxies on a pixel-by-pixel basis.
| status = Completed
| category = Astronomy
| compute = CPU
| dependencies = None documented
| developer = [[wikipedia:International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research|International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research]] (ICRAR), led by Associate Professor Kevin Vinsen<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />
| author = Kevin Vinsen and David Thilker<ref name="vinsen2013">{{Cite journal |authors=Vinsen, Kevin and David Thilker |title=A BOINC based, citizen-science project for pixel spectral energy distribution fitting of resolved galaxies in multi-wavelength surveys |journal=Astronomy and Computing |volume=3 |pages=1{{ndash}}12 |year=2013 |doi=10.1016/j.ascom.2013.10.001 |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2213133713000280}}</ref>
| sponsor = ICRAR, a joint venture of [[wikipedia:Curtin University|Curtin University]] and the [[wikipedia:University of Western Australia|University of Western Australia]]<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />
| maintainer = N/A (project concluded in 2018)
| released = {{Start date and age|2012|09|13}}
| completed = {{Start date and age|2018|05|02}}
| discontinued =
| repository = {{URL|https://github.com/ICRAR/boinc-magphys}}
| programming language = Python, C++, Fortran, C, PHP<ref name="github" />
| operating system = Windows, Unix/Linux, macOS, Android<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />
| size =
| stats as of = {{Start date and age|2014|10|13}}
| average performance =
| active users = 5,268
| total users = 13,770
| active hosts = 16,508
| total hosts = 40,847
| rac =
| credit per day =
| gpu performance =
| cpu performance =
| website = {{URL|http://pogs.theskynet.org/pogs/}}
| license = LGPL-2.1-or-later<ref name="github-license" />
}}

{{Lowercase title}}

'''theSkyNet POGS''' ('''P'''an-STARRS '''O'''ptical '''G'''alaxy '''S'''urvey) was a [[wikipedia:volunteer computing|volunteer computing]] project that used [[wikipedia:BOINC|BOINC]] to measure the physical properties of tens of thousands of nearby galaxies. It was run by the [[wikipedia:International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research|International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research]] (ICRAR), a joint venture of [[wikipedia:Curtin University|Curtin University]] and the [[wikipedia:University of Western Australia|University of Western Australia]], as one of two research projects under the umbrella of '''theSkyNet''', ICRAR's public astronomy outreach initiative.<ref name="wiki-theskynet">{{Cite web |title=TheSkyNet |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheSkyNet |website=Wikipedia |access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref> POGS combined imaging from three space telescopes, [[wikipedia:GALEX|GALEX]], [[wikipedia:Pan-STARRS|Pan-STARRS1]] and [[wikipedia:Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer|WISE]], to build a multi-wavelength, pixel-resolved atlas of galaxy properties such as stellar mass, star formation rate and dust content.<ref name="vinsen2013" /> theSkyNet POGS was the first Australian-based project to be made available to the public on BOINC.<ref name="icrar-t2">{{Cite web |title=theSkyNet: T2 is Born |url=https://www.icrar.org/theskynet-t2-born/ |publisher=ICRAR |date=2012-09-13 |access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref>

The project completed its data-processing goals in May 2018 and is no longer distributing work.<ref name="pogscomplete" />

== Background ==
theSkyNet was launched by ICRAR in September 2011 as a citizen-science initiative combining two separate research projects, ''Sourcefinder'' and ''POGS''.<ref name="wiki-theskynet" /> Sourcefinder tested automatic radio source-finding algorithms in preparation for surveys with the [[wikipedia:Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder|Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder]] (ASKAP) and the future [[wikipedia:Square Kilometre Array|Square Kilometre Array]], and initially ran as a Java-based browser application before being redeveloped onto BOINC and [[wikipedia:VirtualBox|VirtualBox]].<ref name="wiki-theskynet" /> POGS, the subject of this article, began internal testing about a year after theSkyNet's launch and was formally integrated into the main theSkyNet website and opened to BOINC volunteers on 13 September 2012, coinciding with theSkyNet's second anniversary and the launch of a site-wide relaunch nicknamed "T2".<ref name="icrar-t2" /><ref name="science20-t2">{{Cite web |title=theSkyNet Citizen Science Project Gets A T2 |url=https://www.science20.com/news_articles/theskynet_citizen_science_project_gets_t2-120402 |publisher=Science 2.0 |date=2012-09-13 |access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref>

The project's name is a [[wikipedia:backronym|backronym]]: "POGS" originally referred to a disc-flipping playground game (see [[wikipedia:Milk caps (game)|milk caps]]) that originated on Maui, Hawaii in the 1920s, chosen as a nod to the fact that the Pan-STARRS PS1 telescope sits on Mount Haleakala on Maui. The project subsequently recast the acronym as "Pan-STARRS Optical Galaxy Survey".<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />

== Scientific goals and methodology ==
POGS set out to combine the spectral coverage of GALEX (ultraviolet), Pan-STARRS1 (optical) and WISE (near-infrared) to build a value-added, multi-wavelength galaxy atlas of the nearby Universe, later also folding in data from the [[wikipedia:Sloan Digital Sky Survey|Sloan Digital Sky Survey]] (SDSS).<ref name="vinsen2013" /> Rather than fitting a single spectral energy distribution (SED) to the integrated light of each galaxy, the project performed SED fitting on an individual pixel basis, producing resolved maps of a galaxy's physical properties across its disc.<ref name="vinsen2013" />

[[File:Starr-141106-2755-Dubautia menziesii-habitat view Pan Starrs telescopes-Science City-Maui (25130256292).jpg|thumb|The twin Pan-STARRS telescopes at Haleakala Observatory, Maui, Hawaii, source of the optical imagery underpinning POGS]]

For each pixel, volunteers' computers fitted an observed spectral energy distribution against a large library of model galaxy spectra generated by the '''MAGPHYS''' code (Multi-wavelength Analysis of Galaxy Physical Properties), which enforces energy balance between the light absorbed by interstellar dust and the light the dust re-emits in the infrared:<ref name="vinsen2013" />

<math>L_{dust} = \int_0^{\infty} \left[ L_\lambda^{\text{unattenuated}} - L_\lambda^{\text{attenuated}} \right] \, d\lambda</math>

The best-fitting model for each pixel was selected by minimising the chi-squared statistic between the observed and model fluxes across the available bands:

<math>\chi^2 = \sum_{i=1}^{N} \frac{\left(f_i^{\text{obs}} - f_i^{\text{model}}\right)^2}{\sigma_i^2}</math>

From the best-fitting models, the project derived resolved maps of stellar mass surface density, star formation rate surface density, dust attenuation and first-order star formation history:<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />

<math>\Sigma_{\mathrm{SFR}} = \frac{\mathrm{SFR}_{\mathrm{pixel}}}{A_{\mathrm{pixel}}}</math>

theSkyNet POGS relied entirely on CPU processing and did not make use of GPUs, in contrast to many contemporary BOINC astronomy projects.<ref name="wiki-theskynet" /> A GPU-accelerated version of MAGPHYS was in development as of late 2013, with testing anticipated for November of that year, though the CPU-only client remained the project's production workload for its lifetime.<ref name="vinsen2013" />

== Software and infrastructure ==
The BOINC application, published by ICRAR under the name '''boinc-magphys''', wrapped the underlying MAGPHYS [[wikipedia:Fortran|Fortran]] SED-fitting code inside a distributed-computing pipeline written primarily in [[wikipedia:Python (programming language)|Python]] and [[wikipedia:C++|C++]], with supporting components in [[wikipedia:C (programming language)|C]] and [[wikipedia:PHP|PHP]] for the project server, database migration and web front end.<ref name="github">{{Cite web |title=ICRAR/boinc-magphys: theSkyNet POGS |url=https://github.com/ICRAR/boinc-magphys |publisher=GitHub |access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref> The client software ran on Windows, Unix/Linux, macOS and Android, and some discrepancies were observed between results returned by Android devices and other platforms, attributed to differences in floating-point rounding at the boundary between 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.<ref name="wiki-theskynet" /> The source code is published under the [[wikipedia:GNU Lesser General Public License|GNU Lesser General Public License]], version 2.1 or later.<ref name="github-license">{{Cite web |title=boinc-magphys/LICENSE.markdown |url=https://github.com/ICRAR/boinc-magphys/blob/master/LICENSE.markdown |publisher=GitHub |access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref>

[[File:GALEX.jpg|thumb|NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) supplied the ultraviolet imagery combined into the POGS multi-wavelength atlas]]
[[File:WISE.jpg|thumb|upright|The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) contributed near and mid-infrared photometry to the survey]]

== Growth and statistics ==
At the time of the project's founding paper (30 September 2013), POGS had 4,663 active users running 11,629 computers, and had processed 8,348 galaxies, equivalent to about 53 million individual pixels, at a pace of roughly 110 galaxies per day.<ref name="vinsen2013" /> On 23 September 2014 the project's team leader announced that POGS was about to process its 50,000th galaxy.<ref name="fifty-thousandth">{{Cite web |title=theSkyNet POGS forum |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010082321/http://pogs.theskynet.org/pogs/forum_thread.php?id=482#3457 |publisher=theSkyNet POGS |date=2014-09-23 |access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref> The project's server status page recorded, as of 13 October 2014, a total of 13,770 users who had ever earned credit (5,268 of them recently active) running a total of 40,847 computers with credit (16,508 recently active).<ref name="serverstatus">{{Cite web |title=theSkyNet POGS server status |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006221745/http://pogs.theskynet.org/pogs/server_status.php |publisher=theSkyNet POGS |date=2014-10-13 |access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref>

== Completion and legacy ==
By late April 2018, volunteers noticed that no new POGS work units were being issued. Team leadership confirmed shortly afterwards that all of the roughly 100,000 target galaxies identified for the survey had been processed and that the project was concluding.<ref name="pogscomplete">{{Cite web |title=theSkyNet POGS is complete / Shutting Down! |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180502140314/http://pogs.theskynet.org/pogs/forum_thread.php?id=879&postid=5415#5415 |publisher=theSkyNet POGS forum |date=2018-05-02 |access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref> The team indicated that the processed pixel data would next be used to train an [[wikipedia:autoencoder|autoencoder]] neural network to help classify galaxies by their measured features, and that any resulting scientific papers would credit the BOINC volunteers who contributed processing time.<ref name="netsoft-mirror">{{Cite web |title=theSkyNet POGS is complete / Shutting Down! |url=https://boinc.netsoft-online.com/forum/general-discussion/1448/?p=1 |publisher=BOINC Combined Statistics forum |access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref> Keeping the theSkyNet and POGS web services online was reported to cost more than 2,000 [[wikipedia:Australian dollar|AUD]] per month, and the team indicated the sites would eventually be taken offline once the wrap-up work was finished.<ref name="netsoft-mirror" /> ICRAR's sister project theSkyNet Sourcefinder was shut down for redevelopment around the same period.<ref name="wiki-theskynet" /> The two projects together are now listed among the completed and retired BOINC projects.<ref name="wiki-theskynet" />

Following the closure of theSkyNet, ICRAR went on to run further citizen-science projects, including AstroQuest, launched in 2019 to help classify light sources within galaxy images.<ref name="icrar-wiki">{{Cite web |title=International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Centre_for_Radio_Astronomy_Research |website=Wikipedia |access-date=2026-07-16}}</ref>

== Publications ==
The following papers, meeting the [https://boinc.berkeley.edu/pubs.php#TheSkyNet BOINC publications] criterion of containing scientific results arising, directly or indirectly, from BOINC-based computing, are associated with theSkyNet POGS.

# {{Cite journal |authors=Chambers, K. C., E. A. Magnier, N. Metcalfe |title=The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys |year=2016 |doi=10.48550/ARXIV.1612.05560 |url=https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.05560}}
# {{Cite journal |authors=Thilker, David A., K. Vinsen and PS1 Galaxy Properties Key Project |title=Early science from the Pan-STARRS1 Optical Galaxy Survey (POGS): Maps of stellar mass and star formation rate surface density obtained from distributed-computing pixel-SED fitting |year=2014 |url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014AAS...22311611T}}
# {{Cite journal |authors=Vinsen, Kevin and David Thilker |title=A BOINC based, citizen-science project for pixel spectral energy distribution fitting of resolved galaxies in multi-wavelength surveys |journal=Astronomy and Computing |volume=3 |pages=1{{ndash}}12 |year=2013 |doi=10.1016/j.ascom.2013.10.001 |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2213133713000280}}

== See also ==
* [[SETI@home]]
* [[Einstein@Home]]
* [[World Community Grid]]
* [[Predictor@home]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:BOINC projects]]
[[Category:Astronomy BOINC projects]]
[[Category:Completed BOINC projects]]