IDIS Small Bodies and Dust Node: Technical innovation and science M. Giardino, V.F. Braga ⇑ , M.C. De Sanctis, L. Giacomini, S. Giuppi, D. Turrini, M.T. Capria INAF-IAPS, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy Received 29 October 2013; received in revised form 7 October 2014; accepted 22 October 2014 Available online 31 October 2014 Abstract It is not trivial, nowadays, to be fully aware of the impressive amount of astrophysical resources that are at hand. Virtual Observa- tories (VOs) were therefore created to provide a simple access to what astronomers look for. In this paper we focus on the original data access services developed specifically, in a VO perspective, for the “Small Bodies and Dust Node” (SBDN) in the framework of the Inte- grated and Distributed Information System (IDIS) initiative of the Europlanet Research Infrastructure project. We describe the scientific goals, along with the innovative technical aspects, of the tools that SBDN presently provides to the scientific community, namely the Comet Emission Lines service, and the Cosmic Dust Catalog service. In the former, an algorithm for the detection of unidentified emission lines has been implemented. Ó 2014 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Comets; Asteroids; Small bodies; IDIS; Virtual observatory 1. Introduction The Integrated and Distributed Information System (IDIS) is supported by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Program, Europlanet Research Infra- structure, as part of the Capacities Specific Programme. It is an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative, ie. a combination of Networking Activities, Transnational Access Activities and Joint Research Activities. The main tasks of IDIS are to provide an easy-to-use web-based platform to give access to available data, to locate teams and laboratories with specific expertise, to exploit synergies between space- based missions and ground-based observatories. A set of tools for describing, accessing and combining information and data from different European and non-European sources are currently under development. Their goal is to offer a Virtual Observatory-like access to a huge amount of planetary science data. IDIS is organized as a network of six web-servers hosted each by a different institute in Europe. In order to address the full interdisciplinary extent of planetary sciences, five primary scientific areas (Interior and surfaces, Atmospheres, Plasma, Planet Dynamics and Small Bodies and Dust) have been identified. Each institute of the IDIS initiative is in charge of a scientific area and their own group of experts supports the activities of the node and the screening of the published node contents. IDIS differs from similar web based services like ESA PSA and NASA Small Bodies Node and is not intended to replace them but instead to offer an alternative solution. Overall, IDIS, rather than being a physical data repository, is intended to offer tools and techniques to facilitate the retrieval of planetary resources archived in organizations such as research institutes, universities and space agencies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2014.10.029 0273-1177/Ó 2014 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Universita ` Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma, Italy. E-mail addresses: marco.giardino@iaps.inaf.it (M. Giardino), vittoriofrancesco.braga@iaps.inaf.it (V.F. Braga), mariacristina. desanctis@iaps.inaf.it (M.C. De Sanctis), Livia.Giacomini@iaps.inaf.it (L. Giacomini), Stefano.Giuppi@iaps.inaf.it (S. Giuppi), Diego.Turrini@ iaps.inaf.it (D. Turrini), mariateresa.capria@iaps.inaf.it (M.T. Capria). www.elsevier.com/locate/asr Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 747–752