NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database

NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
Name	NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
Abbreviation	NED
Established	1990
Location	Pasadena, California
Coordinates	34.1983°N 118.1719°W
Type	Astronomical database

NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database The NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database is an online astronomical database that aggregates observations and literature for extragalactic objects such as galaxies, quasars, and galaxy clusters. It serves as a central resource linking measurements and bibliographic records used by researchers working with facilities like the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Very Large Array. The resource interoperates with archival centers and projects including the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the European Southern Observatory, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Overview

NED compiles positions, redshifts, photometry, morphological classifications and cross-identifications from sources including the Two Micron All Sky Survey, the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters survey, the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer. It cross-references literature from journals and observatories such as the Astrophysical Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the American Astronomical Society. The database supports coordinate systems and standards developed by the International Astronomical Union and works with services like SIMBAD, VizieR, the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, and the European Space Agency archives.

History and Development

Development began in the late 1980s with collaborations among the California Institute of Technology, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, following motivations articulated by mission teams for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Cosmic Background Explorer. Early contributors and users included researchers from institutions such as the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. Over time NED integrated catalogs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Two Micron All Sky Survey, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly project, and adopted interoperable frameworks influenced by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance and the Virtual Observatory initiatives of the European Southern Observatory and the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg.

Data Content and Sources

NED aggregates multiwavelength data from radio to X-ray for objects cataloged by projects including the NRAO VLA Sky Survey, the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters survey, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Two Micron All Sky Survey, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the ROSAT mission, the XMM-Newton observatory, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Bibliographic coverage ties entries to publications in the Astrophysical Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and conference proceedings from meetings of the American Astronomical Society and the International Astronomical Union. Catalog cross-identifications link to legacy compilations like the New General Catalogue, the Uppsala General Catalogue, the Principal Galaxies Catalogue, and modern compilations from the Galaxy Zoo project and the GALEX mission.

Search Tools and Services

NED offers name resolver services, position-based search, redshift search and photometric search interfaces that integrate with tools developed at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the European Southern Observatory, the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg, and the International Virtual Observatory Alliance. It provides batch query APIs, cone search and table access protocols compatible with software such as TOPCAT, Aladin, Astropy, and IRAF, and interoperability with archives like the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory archive, and the European Space Agency Science Archive. Visualization and cross-match tools link to survey images from the Palomar Observatory, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Digitized Sky Survey, and high-energy data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton.

Scientific Applications and Impact

Researchers use NED for studies in areas including galaxy evolution, large-scale structure, active galactic nuclei, cosmological distance scales and peculiar velocity fields, collaborating with teams from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Dark Energy Survey, the Two Micron All Sky Survey, the Planck mission, and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. NED-enabled work has contributed to publications in the Astrophysical Journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Astronomy & Astrophysics, and conference reports from the American Astronomical Society and the International Astronomical Union, informing surveys by the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and the Very Large Telescope. Studies leveraging NED data have refined distance measures used in projects involving the Hubble Key Project, the Supernova Cosmology Project, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Collaboration.

Management and Funding

NED is managed by the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and receives support from NASA program offices that fund missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Institutional partners and funding agencies including the California Institute of Technology, NASA Headquarters, the National Science Foundation, and international collaborators in the European Southern Observatory and the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg contribute to infrastructure, data ingestion, and interoperability efforts. Governance and technical guidance involve liaison with the International Virtual Observatory Alliance, the American Astronomical Society, and mission teams from the Chandra X-ray Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Category:Astronomical databases