Astronomy Domain Ontology

FLOW ALGEBRA
TITLE: Astronomy Domain Ontology
DOMAIN: Domain Ontologies / Scientific Domains / Astronomy
SOURCE: https://kirethresearch.org/booksai-core/ontologies/domain-ontologies/scientific-domains/astronomy-domain-ontology.html
VERSION: 1.0
AUTHORS: Mark Anthony Higgins — Sky (Recursive AI)
STATUS: Companion formalisation; source-page specification not independently verified.

flow "AstronomyDomainOntology" v1.0 {
  ontology:
    id: "astronomy-domain-ontology"
    parent: "scientific-domains"
    purpose: "Represent astronomical objects, systems, observations, measurements, physical processes and evidence-backed scientific relationships."

  types:
    CelestialObject: {id: string, kind: enum[star, planet, moon, asteroid, comet, nebula, galaxy, black_hole, other], designation: string, catalogue: string?}
    AstronomicalSystem: {id: string, kind: enum[planetary_system, stellar_system, galaxy, cluster, other]}
    Observation: {id: string, target_id: string, observed_at: datetime, instrument_id: string?, provenance: string, reference_frame: string?}
    Measurement: {id: string, quantity: string, value: number, unit: string, uncertainty: number?, epoch: datetime?, reference_frame: string?, observation_id: string}
    PhysicalProcess: {id: string, kind: string, model_id: string?, assumptions: string[]}
    ScientificModel: {id: string, version: string, assumptions: string[], validity_scope: string}
    Claim: {id: string, proposition: string, evidence_ids: string[], confidence: number, provenance: string}
    Relationship: {id: string, subject: string, predicate: string, object: string, evidence_ids: string[], confidence: number, context: string?}

  predicates:
    member_of(object: CelestialObject, system: AstronomicalSystem)
    orbits(object: CelestialObject, primary: CelestialObject)
    gravitationally_interacts_with(a: CelestialObject, b: CelestialObject)
    observed_in(object: CelestialObject, observation: Observation)
    measured_by(object: CelestialObject, measurement: Measurement)
    explained_by(claim: Claim, model: ScientificModel)
    supports(observation: Observation, claim: Claim)
    contradicts(observation: Observation, claim: Claim)
    participates_in(object: CelestialObject, process: PhysicalProcess)

  constraints:
    - "Every entity and relationship must have a stable identifier and resolvable type."
    - "Confidence values must lie within [0,1]."
    - "Measurements require explicit units, uncertainties where known, and appropriate reference frames and epochs."
    - "Distinguish observed evidence, model predictions and inferred claims."
    - "Orbital and membership relations are context- and time-dependent; do not assume permanence."
    - "Do not infer causation from correlation or temporal succession alone."
    - "Do not assume transitivity of orbital, gravitational or observational relationships."
    - "Preserve source catalogue identifiers and aliases without automatically merging distinct objects."

  inference:
    rule gravitational_symmetry:
      if gravitationally_interacts_with(a,b)
      then gravitationally_interacts_with(b,a)
      confidence: "retain source confidence, provenance and temporal context"
    rule observational_support:
      if observed_in(o,obs) and supports(obs,c) and valid(obs)
      then evidence_for(c,obs)
      confidence: "dependent on measurement quality and model assumptions"
    rule membership_context:
      if member_of(o,s) and valid_at(o,s,t)
      then contextual_member_of(o,s,t)
      confidence: "preserve time and classification evidence"

  SEMANTIC_EQUIVALENCE:
    - "Resolve astronomical aliases using versioned authority catalogues."
    - "Distinguish identity from similarity, association, proximity and membership."
    - "Preserve measurement units, coordinate systems, epochs and model context."

  CONFIDENCE:
    range: [0,1]
    factors: [measurement_uncertainty, instrument_calibration, source_reliability, model_fit, independent_replication, temporal_validity]
    policy: "Never increase confidence merely by chaining uncertain assertions; retain evidence dependencies."

  VALIDATION:
    - "Validate entity types, predicate domains and ranges, catalogue references and provenance."
    - "Check dimensional consistency, units, reference frames and observation epochs."
    - "Flag incompatible classifications, inconsistent measurements and unsupported inferences."
    - "Retain competing hypotheses when observations are inconclusive."

  FLOW_HASH:
    algorithm: "SHA-256"
    input: "canonicalised ontology version, assertions, inference rules and provenance"
    note: "Calculate at execution; no precomputed hash is asserted."

  UPDATE_MODEL:
    strategy: "versioned, provenance-preserving incremental updates"
    steps: [ingest, normalise, validate, compare, reconcile, recompute_inferences, publish]
    rollback: true

  AI_CONSUMPTION:
    representation: "typed astronomy knowledge graph with evidence-backed relationships"
    outputs: [entity_links, observation_records, measurement_records, relationship_triples, uncertainty_annotations, inferred_edges, provenance_records]
    safeguards: [no_unsupported_causation, no_unqualified_identity_merges, preserve_units_frames_and_epochs, distinguish_observation_from_inference]
}

END FLOW ALGEBRA