Tiling the Sky for Multi-Messenger Astronomy

Description: Tilepy is an open-source platform revolutionizing multi-messenger astrophysics by optimizing the scheduling of follow-up observations for events with large sky localization uncertainties, such as gravitational waves, gamma-ray bursts, and high-energy neutrinos.

Main Points

● What is Tilepy? Tilepy is a Python package designed to efficiently schedule observations by correlating galaxy distributions with 3D localization information and optimizing observation strategies across the electromagnetic spectrum.

● How does it work? Tilepy employs sophisticated algorithms that take into account telescope visibility and observability constraints to create observation plans that prioritize the most probable regions of an event.

● Key features:

○ Automatic generation of optimized observation plans.

○ Versatility for various transient events.

○ Integration with Astro-COLIBRI for user-friendly scheduling via web and smartphone apps.

○ Customization options for individual needs and research objectives.

● Real-world impact: Tilepy is the default scheduling tool for high-energy gamma-ray observatories like H.E.S.S. and CTA/LST-1. It was instrumental in the rapid follow-up of GW170817, allowing H.E.S.S. to be the first ground-based instrument to observe the merger location.

● Accessibility: Tilepy is an open-source project available on GitHub, encouraging community contributions and collaboration.

Pronunciation: "Tile-pie" ;-)

Main Papers:

● M. Seglar-Arroyo et al., “Cross-Observatory Coordination with tilepy: A Novel Tool for Observations of Multi-Messenger Transient Events”, ApJS 274 1 (2024)

● H. Ashkar et al., "The H.E.S.S. gravitational wave rapid follow-up program", JCAP 03 (2021) 045

Additional Resources

● Tilepy GitHub repository: https://github.com/astro-transients/Tilepy

● Tilepy website: https://tilepy.com

● Astro-COLIBRI platform: https://astro-colibri.science

Illustration from tilepy.com. Podcast created with Google/NotebookLM.