Even though the latest supercomputers now can store and process dozens of terabytes of data, managing such a vast amount of information is still a big problem. Correlation between objects in different catalogs allows astronomers to combine information from multiple regions of the spectrum, giving insights into the nature of cosmic phenomena that observations at a single wavelength cannot reveal. In addition, correlated catalogs can be queried to identify objects with similar characteristics, and can make statistical analyses and data mining more feasible. A 2MASS view of the Sharpless 82 hydrogen gas cloud region in the Milky Way. The 2MASS project is one of the cornerstones of the Digital Sky project.
Data acquisition is nearly complete .
The sky has been divided into 59,650 such tiles, and a total of 58,635 have been observed to date. The amount of data that must be managed is enormous. The 2MASS survey alone will result in approximately 5 million images that aggregate to 10 terabytes of data. The working 2MASS point source catalogue currently exceeds one billion stars. The final, fully processed catalogue is projected to exceed 600 million stars.