NED History

(Latest Revision: 26 May 2009)

Highlights of Data and Features Recently Added to NED (December 2008)

Data for 154 million objects from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 (SDSS DR6) photometric catalog have been integrated into NED. This release includes new cross-identifications with multiwavelength observations previously cross-correlated by NED from tens of thousands of catalogs and journal articles; these multiwavelength cross-IDs have enabled the incorporation of SDSS DR6 photometry into NED's Spectral Energy Distributions. In the user interface, object queries now include the ability to change the cosmological parameters used to calculate Hubble distances and other Derived Quantities. In addition, magnitudes with filter codes are now included in the object search result tables (e.g., objects within 2 arcminutes of SDSS J140003.70+562055.3), and the Advanced All-Sky (By Parameters) search includes Spitzer IRAC and MIPS, SDSS, and GALEX filters among the photometric constraints. Further details follow.

Database Enhancements:

As our infrastructure and data management processes continue to evolve, NED is scaling up to handle modern sky surveys containing hundreds of millions of objects. The first extremely large dataset to be integrated into NED involves 154 million objects from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 6 (DR6) photometric catalog. These are a subset of the 217 million objects in DR6, which were selected using the following "Clean sample" filters based on recommendations by the SDSS team (see SDSS recommendations for clean samples of objects):

  • All objects with SDSS PRIMARY status bit set,
  • and SDSS flags set as follows
    • BINNED1
    • and not BRIGHT
    • and (not BLENDED or NODEBLEND)
    • and not NOPROFILE
    • and not (PEAKCENTER or NOTCHECKED
      or (DEBLEND_NOPEAK and r-band PSF mag err > 0.2))
    • and not DEBLENDED_AS_MOVING

We did not filter out objects with the SATURATED flag set, because although SDSS photometry is unreliable for such sources, this would have omitted useful SDSS positions and size measurements for galaxies with bright nuclei, including many nearby Seyfert galaxies. The requirement that Status=PRIMARY excluded objects with Status=FAMILY that were de-blended by the pipeline into smaller components (these CHILD objects themselves have Status=PRIMARY), and also excluded repeated observations with Status=SECONDARY.

SDSS classified each object as either a "galaxy" or "star", depending on whether the pipeline determined it to be resolved (extended) or unresolved (a point source). Along with objects of type "galaxy", objects of type "star" were also folded into NED, because this SDSS classification is strictly morphological and includes many point sources that are actually QSOs and unresolved, compact galaxies. Whenever possible, both types of SDSS objects have been cross-matched to objects in the previous version of NED (which had ~10 million objects total, including ~4 million objects within the SDSS footprint) using our standard position- and data-matching procedures.

The new data in NED include:

With over 1.7 billion detailed photometric measurements (PSF, Model and CModel magnitudes for galaxies) in five bands, and hundreds of millions of diameter and position measurements, as well as crucial flags from the pipeline processing, folding in SDSS DR6 (the "Clean Sample" subset described above) has expanded NED's tabular database volume by a factor of ~200.

Future work with SDSS:

  • While we have carefully checked the resulting database of about 163 million objects, there are certain to be anomalies included. Many SDSS objects, for example, are parts of galaxies covering a major portion of a spiral arm. These may be cross-matched to radio sources or H II regions with relatively large position uncertainties that coincidentally overlap the much smaller position error ellipses of the SDSS objects. Some of the cross-matches made in this initial release of DR6 in NED may be replaced by statistical Associations in future updates.
  • The current release includes DR6 objects that have either no counterparts among objects previously in NED, or generally reliable cross-identifications with objects previously in NED based on observations across the EM spectrum. However, hundreds of thousands of SDSS objects have been determined by our cross-comparison software to be possible (candidate) matches with other objects in NED. In addition, there are many cases in which multiple SDSS objects may be associated with single objects observed with lower resolution (e.g., radio, UV, or X-ray surveys). Such 1-to-1 or 1-to-many relationships will be folded in as additional Associations in future updates to NED. Example: 6C radio galaxies associated with SDSS J132435.20+504102.3
  • SDSS measurements for large galaxies, including a subset of objects with Status=FAMILY from the standard SDSS pipeline and measurements derived from custom mosaics such as those produced for selected galaxies in the RC3 by David Hogg at NYU, will be folded into NED at a later date.
  • SDSS DR7 was released while we were completing the process of integrating DR6 into NED. Due to the extensive effort and complexities involved in handling re-processed data (positions and photometric calibration changed slightly from DR6 to DR7), in addition to all of the other data sets that we have to process, it will take us many months to incorporate final measurements from SDSS-II into NED.
  • Please let us know about any peculiarities or omissions, so that future releases of NED can more accurately reflect our knowledge of the extragalactic Universe.

Interface enhancements:

  • Since the release of Derived Quantities in 2007, NED has been reporting radial velocities corrected for motions due to major attractors (superclusters) in a local velocity field model (Mould et al. 2000, ApJ, 529, 786), Hubble flow distances, and spatial scales, as well as quantities derived from the redshift corrected to the reference frame defined by the 3K background and further corrected for a concordance cosmological model with Ho = 73 km s-1 Mpc-1, Ωmatter = 0.27, and Ωvacuum = 0.73. Object searches now include the ability to change the cosmological parameters used to calculate Hubble distances and other Derived Quantities, including a short-cut to select high precision parameters from the recent Five-Year WMAP results (i.e., Ho = 70.5 +/- 1.3 km s-1 Mpc-1; Hinshaw et al. 2009, ApJS, in press; http://arxiv.org/abs/0803.0732).
  • Result tables returned by object searches now include magnitudes and filter codes, where appropriate. Example: objects within 2 arcminutes of SDSS J140003.70+562055.3
  • The Advanced All-Sky (By Parameters) search includes Spitzer IRAC and MIPS, SDSS, and GALEX filters among the photometric constraints. Note that this feature currently returns objects with observations in the frequency range corresponding to the selected passband filter. For example, selection of the Spitzer MIPS 24 um filter will also return objects with photometry from the IRAS 25 um filter, because these filters overlap. This approach permits the location of objects with photometry in the selected region of the spectrum, while cutting across multiple surveys, detectors and filters that have been cross-correlated by NED. A future upgrade will include an option to restrict the search to only the selected passband filter.
  • Notice: The growing richness of information available in NED presents a need to revamp the organization of the object query reports to make it easier to locate the different types of information and related categories of links to "drill down" for further details. Users with client computer programs and scripts that automate queries to the NED server are encouraged to use the XML/VOTable or simple ASCII table output modes to avoid having to frequently change parsing algorithms, as the HTML version of the query reports will continue to evolve primarily to meet the needs of interactive users. For further details, see NED's Guidelines for Automated Queries.

Latest review papers in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

27 March 2008 Revisions

Data for nearly 300,000 objects linked to 1448 journal articles and catalogs, redshifts for about 215,000 objects, 0.5 million multiwavelength cross-IDs, and nearly 1.7 million photometric measurements have been added to NED since the previous public release. Highlights include:

  • 214,687 detailed redshift data frames from 55 published papers and catalogues including
  • 200,089 NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS) Bootes objects from 2007ApJS..169...21C, Cool, R.J.: zBootes: z-Band Photometry in the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey Bootes Field
  • 36,121 GALEX UltraViolet objects from 2007ApJ...664...53A, Atlee, D. W. and Gould, A.: Photometric Selection of QSO Candidates from GALEX Sources
  • 13,825 MaxBCG clusters and Brightest Cluster Galaxies in the SDSS from 2007ApJ...660..239K, Koester et al: A MaxBCG Catalog of 13,823 Galaxy Clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
  • 4,667 galaxies in the direction of Abell 3526 2007ApJS..170...95C, Chiboucas, K. and Mateo, M.: The Luminosity Function of Nearby Galaxy Clusters. I
  • 2,478 VERA radio sources from 2007AJ....133.2487P, Petrov et al: VERA 22 GHz Fringe Search Survey
  • 625 SDSS-C4 galaxy clusters from 2007MNRAS.379..867V, Von der Linden et al: How special are brightest group and cluster galaxies?
  • 143 galaxies in Abell 0773 from 2007A&A...467...37B, Barrena et al: Internal dynamics of the radio halo cluster Abell 773: a multiwavelength analysis

Latest review papers LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology:

Highlights of recent additions to photometry:

Recent additions to NED's image database

  • 222 K-band images from 2005MNRAS.360..587B, Balogh et al: Near-infrared imaging of 222 nearby H-delta-strong galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,
  • RGB images for 506 galaxies from 2004PASP..116..133L, Lupton et al: Preparing Red-Green-Blue Images from CCD Data
  • UV images for 27 galaxies from 2007ApJ...659..162T, Taylor-Mager et al: Dependence of Galaxy Structure on Rest-Frame Wavelength and Galaxy Type
  • Spitzer IRAC and MIPS, and ground-based BVRI and H-alpha images for the 75 galaxies in the SINGS sample described in 2003PASP..115..928K, Kennicutt et al: SINGS: The SIRTF Nearby Galaxies Survey

Recent additions to NED's database of spectra

  • 2112 HI spectra for galaxies from 1998A&AS..130..333T, Theureau et al: Kinematics of the local universe. VII. New 21-cm line measurements of 2112 galaxies
  • Spitzer IRS and ground-based optical spectra for the 75 galaxies in the SINGS sample described in 2003PASP..115..928K, Kennicutt et al: SINGS: The SIRTF Nearby Galaxies Survey

24 October 2007 Revisions

Data for nearly 200,000 objects linked to 790 journal articles and catalogs, redshifts for about 12,000 objects, 0.5 million multiwavelength cross-IDs, and nearly 3.4 million photometric measurements have been added to NED since the previous public release. Highlights include:

  • 3,251,889 detailed photometry data frames (Petrosian magnitudes) for over 659,000 SDSS DR5 objects from the spectroscopically-observed samples described in 2002AJ....124.1810S, Strauss et al: Spectroscopic Target Selection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Main Galaxy Sample, 2002AJ....123.2945R, Richards et al: Spectroscopic Target Selection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Quasar Sample, and 2001AJ....122.2267E, Eisenstein et al: Spectroscopic Target Selection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Luminous Red Galaxy Sample.
  • 2,597,657 detailed r-band diameter data points for the 659,000+ SDSS DR5 objects as noted above.
  • 157,612 near-IR FLAMEX galaxies from 2006ApJ...639..816E, Elston et al: The FLAMINGOS Extragalactic Survey
  • 18,009 galaxies from the 2MASS Flat Galaxy Catalog in 2004BSAO...57....5M, Mitronova et al: The 2MASS-selected Flat Galaxy Catalog
  • 12,555 JVAS/CLASS radio sources from 2007MNRAS.376..371J, Jackson et al: A survey of polarization in the JVAS/CLASS flat-spectrum radio source surveys - I. The data and catalogue production
  • 5,884 SDSS QSOs with z > 3 from 2007AJ....133.2222S, Shen et al: Clustering of High-Redshift (z >= 2.9) Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
  • 3,944 Spitzer extragalactic First Look Survey GMRT radios sources from 2007MNRAS.376.1251G, Garn et al: Deep 610-MHz Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations of the Spitzer extragalactic First Look Survey field - I. Observations, data analysis and source catalogue
  • 1,119 VLBA Imaging and Polarimetry Survey (VIPS) sources from 2007ApJ...658..203H, Helmboldt et al: The VLBA Imaging and Polarimetry Survey at 5 GHz

Latest review papers LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology:

Highlights of recent additions to photometry, SEDs, and spectral line fluxes:

Recent additions to NED's image database

  • Optical and HI images for Arp 244 (NGC 4038/39) from 2001AJ....122.2969H, Hibbard et al: High-Resolution H I Mapping of NGC 4038/39 ("The Antennae") and Its Tidal Dwarf Galaxy Candidates
  • BVRI and K_s images for 19 galaxies from 2006ApJS..163..270G, Gadotti and de Souza: On the Lengths, Colors, and Ages of 18 Face-on Bars.

Recent additions to NED's database of spectra

  • 8848 HI spectra for UGC and AGC galaxies from 2005ApJS..160..149S, Springob et al: A Digital Archive of HI 21 Centimeter Line Spectra of Optically Targeted Galaxies.
  • 87 Optical spectra for 87 low-redshift QSOs from 1992ApJS...80..109B, Boroson and Green: The emission-line properties of low-redshift quasi-stellar objects.

26 June 2007 Revisions

Data for nearly 65,000 objects linked to over 840 journal articles and catalogs, redshifts for about 50,000 objects, 89,000 multiwavelength cross-IDs, and nearly 10 million photometric measurements have been added to NED since the previous public release. Highlights include:

  • 9,755,643 detailed photometry data frames (PSF, Model, and CModel magnitudes) for over 659,000 SDSS DR5 objects from the spectroscopically-observed samples described in 2002AJ....124.1810S, Strauss et al: Spectroscopic Target Selection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Main Galaxy Sample, 2002AJ....123.2945R, Richards et al: Spectroscopic Target Selection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Quasar Sample, and 2001AJ....122.2267E, Eisenstein et al: Spectroscopic Target Selection in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Luminous Red Galaxy Sample. The Petrosian magnitudes for these objects will be available in NED's September 2007 release.
  • 18,296 near-IR galaxies from 2006A&A...449..951G, Grazian et al: The GOODS-MUSIC sample: a multicolour catalog of near-IR selected galaxies in the GOODS-South field
  • 14,978 luminous red galaxies and QSOs from 2006MNRAS.372..425C, Cannon et al: The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO (2SLAQ) Luminous Red Galaxy Survey
  • 4,492 HII regions in 24 galaxies (of 56) from 2006A&A...459L..13B, Bradley et al: A composite H II region luminosity function in H of unprecedented statistical weight
  • 2,198 groups of galaxies from 2002MNRAS.335..216M, Merchan and Zandivarez: Galaxy groups in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: the Catalogue
  • 810 1.4GHz sources from 2006ApJS..167..103F, Fomalont et al: The Radio/Optical Catalog of the SSA 13 Field
  • 578 high-z, i-band dropout objects from 2006ApJ...653...53B, Bouwens et al: Galaxies at z ~ 6: The UV Luminosity Function and Luminosity Density from 506 HUDF, HUDF Parallel ACS Field, and GOODS i-Dropouts.
  • NED is now using the latest version (4.0) of the Aladin Sky Atlas tool from CDS.

Latest review papers LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology:

Highlights of recent additions to photometry, SEDs, and spectral line fluxes:

Recent additions to NED's image database

  • 279 optical and near-IR images for SINGS galaxies from 2003PASP..115..928K, Kennicutt et al: SINGS: The SIRTF Nearby Galaxies Survey
  • Two CO (J=1-0) line images for M31 from 2006A&A...453..459N, Nieten et al: Molecular gas in the Andromeda galaxy.

Interface enhancements:

  • By popular demand, to the right of the SED plot, the photometry/SED query results page (HTML mode only) provides a new option to Format tabular data as: Text (ASCII) Table Bar-Separated Values, Text (ASCII) Table Tab-Separated Values, or XML/VOTable. Simply make your selection and then click [Change Table Format]. For example, view the SED for 3C 269.
  • The XML/VOTable output from NED query services have been updated to comply with votlint, a Java tool that validates VOTable documents. As of June 2007, NED's VOTables use XML version 1.0 and VOTable version 1.1.

3 April 2007 Revisions

Data for more than 350,000 objects linked to over 750 journal articles and catalogs, redshifts for over 48,000 objects, 274,000 multiwavelength cross-IDs, and 322,000 photometric measurements have been added to NED since the previous public release. Highlights include:

  • 132,612 extragalactic objects from 2006A&A...451..881B, Berta et al: The ESO-Spitzer Imaging extragalactic Survey (ESIS). I. WFI B, V, R deep observations of ELAIS-S1 and comparison to Spitzer and GALEX data
  • 100,563 UV-excess QSO candidates from 2004ApJS..155..257R, Richards et al: Efficient Photometric Selection of Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: 100,000 z < 3 Quasars from DR1
  • 91,847 candidate AGNs and normal galaxies in SDSS DR2 from 2005AJ....130.2439S, Suchov et al: A Census of Object Types and Redshift Estimates in the SDSS Photometric Catalog from a Trained Decision Tree Classifier
  • Detailed redshift and photometry data frames for 47,768 2QZ objects from 2005MNRAS.359...57S, Smith et al., The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - III. The input catalogue and 2004MNRAS.349.1397C, Croom et al., The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - XII. The spectroscopic catalogue and luminosity function.
  • 17,058 24-micron sources from 2006AJ....131.2859F, Fadda et al: The Spitzer Space Telescope Extragalactic First Look Survey: 24-micron Data Reduction, Catalog, and Source Identification
  • 5,632 objects with BR photometry in the Hubble Deep Field South from 2006AJ....131.2383G, Glazebrook et al: Anglo-Australian Telescope Imaging and Microslit Spectroscopy in the Southern Hubble Deep Field
  • 1,545 HII regions, planetary nebulae, and Wolf-Rayet stars in M31 from 1983ApJ...273..544M, Moffat and Shara: Wolf-Rayet stars in the Local Group galaxies M 31 and NGC 6822, 1987ApJ...320..266M, Moffat and Shara: Wolf-Rayet stars in the Andromeda galaxy, and 1993A&AS..102..251M, Meyssonnier et al: An objective-prism survey of emission-line objects in M31.
  • 979 24-micron sources in the GOODS EN1 field from 2006MNRAS.371.1891R, Rodighiero et al: Counting individual galaxies from deep 24-micron Spitzer surveys
  • 735 low surface brightness galaxies in the B and R bands from 2006A&A...459..679A, Adami et al: A deep, wide survey of faint, low-surface-brightness galaxies in the direction of the Coma cluster of galaxies.

Latest review papers LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology:

Highlights of recent additions to photometry, SEDs, and spectral line fluxes:

Recent additions to NED's image database

    HST images for 60 Seyfert galaxies from 2003ApJS..148..327S, Schmitt et al., A Hubble Space Telescope Survey of Extended [O III] λ5007 Emission in a Far-Infrared Selected Sample of Seyfert Galaxies: Observations

Recent additions to NED's database of spectra

    Over 40,000 optical spectra for objects from 2004MNRAS.349.1397C, Croom et al., The 2dF QSO Redshift Survey - XII. The spectroscopic catalogue and luminosity function.

19 December 2006 Revisions

A overview of NED's latest content and capabilities, prepared as a handout for the January 2007 AAS meeting in Seattle, can be downloaded here (4 MB PDF file).

New NED Features:

  • Data for objects with available redshifts contain the following Derived Values: Corrected Velocities (Galactocentric GSR, Local Group, 3K CMB, Virgo Infall, Local Infall), Hubble Flow Distances and Scales (e.g., kpc/arcsec), and Cosmological Quantities including Luminosity Distance, Angular-Size Distance, Co-Moving Radial Distance, Scale, Ages, and Surface Brightness Dimming. A detailed explanation of the computations is available here, and example output can be viewed from this query on the redshift-5 object SDSS J073103.13+445949.5.

  • Literature Data Content and Topical Keywords: Over the years, NED users have asked for a way to filter the rapidly growing literature based on data content and specific extragalactic topics. NED contains substantial information about the data content of journal articles. Thus, using semi-automated methods, this information is being used to assign keywords in these categories: Classifications, Diameters, Components, Images, Photometry, Kinematics, Object Notes, Positions, and Spectroscopy (redshift). This information often cannot be extracted from titles and abstracts alone, but requires knowledge of the content of tables, figures, etc. The computer science literature contains debates on the merits of free-text searching versus use of a "controlled vocabulary" (keywords) assigned by analysis of a knowledge domain. The latter often results in more precise results due to normalization of terms. Examples: "starburst" = "H II" (context: nuclear spectrum); "ultraviolet" = "UV". NED is now assigning and displaying Data Content Keywords (for all papers) using information in NED and Topical Keywords using information kindly provided by the ARI Bibliographical Database for Astronomical References (ARIBIB) for publications prior to mid-2000. Both keyword sets are displayed in the output and utilized in new (optional) filters for literature searches based on Object Names or Author Names.

  • A new Spectral Database service provides:
    1. A unique repository for spectra previously published only via rendered plots in journal articles, as well as support for spectra from large survey archives.
    2. Preview plots.
    3. Preservation of the original data format provided by authors and archive curators.
    4. Standardized (MKS) units and a uniform VO-compatible data format.
    5. ASCII and VOTable download options.
    6. A query service to locate spectra by object name, journal article (refcode), passband, line filters, and combinations thereof.
    7. Quick-look visualization and analysis capability.
    8. Interoperability with VO.

    VOTable is used to standardize the data structure and physical units of spectra provided in various FITS and ASCII formats. This also facilitates comparison, fusion and analysis of spectra via VO-compatible applets such as Specview. We thank Ivo Busko of STScI for making the Specview Java applet available and for kindly supporting recent revisions to accomodate the diverse spectra becoming available in NED. You may search the spectral database here. We also thank the journal article authors and archive curators who have contributed spectra to NED. If you would like to submit spectra to NED (in plain ASCII, FITS, or VOTable XML), please contact us.

Data for 120,000 objects linked to over 530 journal articles and catalogs, redshifts for over 100,000 objects, 146,000 multiwavelength cross-IDs, and 41,000 photometric measurements have been added to NED since the previous public release. Highlights include:

  • Detailed redshift and position data frames for 659,500 SDSS galaxies and QSOs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
  • 18,700 galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2006AJ....132..926C Coe et al., Galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. I.
  • 7,000 from the MMT Hectospec Redshift Survey in 2006AJ....132..231P Papovich et al., An MMT Hectospec Redshift Survey of 24-micron Sources in the Spitzer First Look Survey.
  • 880 galaxies and groups from a survey of strong gravitational lenses in 2006ApJ...646...85W Williams et al., First Results from a Photometric Survey of Strong Gravitational Lens Environments.
  • 750 galaxy clusters derived from the SDSS DR4 in 2005AJ....130..968M Miller et al., The C4 Clustering Algorithm: Clusters of Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
  • 600 galaxy clusters from the Faint Sky Variability Survey in 2006MNRAS.369.1334S Söchting et al., The FSVS Cluster Catalogue: galaxy clusters and groups in the Faint Sky Variability Survey.
  • 322 HII regions and planetary nebulae in M33 from

Latest review papers LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

Highlights of recent additions to photometry, SEDs and spectral line fluxes:

Recent additions to NED's image database

  • 391 images for nearby galaxies from 2003ApJS..149..327G Grauer et al., Infrared Observations of Galaxies in the Local Universe. II. 391 Calibrated Images with Photometric and Structural Measurements.

29 September 2006 Revisions

  • 103,202 galaxies and 13,362 QSOs from 2006SDSS5.C...0000: SDSS DR5 Galaxies and QSOs with redshifts.
  • 15,343 SDSS QSOs from 2006AJ....131.2766R Richards et al., SDSS Quasar Luminosity Function from DR3.
  • 13,111 visually-selected objects in the field around PKS 0405-123 from 2006ApJ...643..680P Prochaska et al., Probing the Intergalactic Medium-Galaxy Connection toward PKS 0405-123: The Galaxy Survey.
  • 9,928 radio sources from 1974A&AS...18..147F (and references therein), Colla, Fanti, et al., The Second Bologna Catalogue of Radio Sources at 408 MHz.
  • 4,784 SDSS BAL QSOs from 2006ApJS..165....1T Trump et al., A Catalog of Broad Absorption Line Quasars from SDSS DR3.
  • 4,748 Chandra sources in the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey field from 2006ApJ...641..140B Brand et al., Optical and Near-Infrared Counterparts in the Chandra XBootes Survey
  • 4,315 HIPASS HI radio sources from 2005MNRAS.361...34D Doyle et al., The HIPASS Catalogue: Optical counterparts and isolated dark galaxies.
  • NED is now using the latest version (3.704) of Aladin Sky Atlas tool from CDS.

Latest review papers LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

Highlights of recent additions to photometry:

Recent additions to NED's image database

  • 2820 images for 1034 nearby galaxies from GALEX FUV and NUV bands, soon to be published by Gil de Paz et al. in ApJS.

31 July 2006 Revisions

  • Now in LEVEL5: NED-1D: NASA/IPAC EXTRAGALACTIC DATABASE of DISTANCES, version 1.1 for 1,073 galaxies with velocities less than 1/8 c, published between 1990 and 2006.
  • X/Y Offset to RA/Dec Converter. Rectangular coordinates referred to a known equatorial position may now be converted to equatorial coordinates using NED's new offset converter tool.
  • A list of over 4200 catalogs and papers currently included in NED, with reference codes and FTP links to the original data sources. Almost all of the acronyms used in NED are listed here in alphabetical order.
  • 6,426 galaxies around 11 clusters from 2006MNRAS.366..645P Pimbblet et al., the Las Campanas/Anglo-Australian Telescope Rich Cluster Survey.
  • 3,649 optical IDs of ROSAT-IRAS FSC sources from 2006A&A...449..425M Mickaelian et al.
  • 1,858 FIRES sources around MS 1054.4-0321 from 2006AJ....131.1891F Forster Schreiber et al, the Faint Infrared Extragalactic Survey.
  • 1,002 HIPASS sources from the northern extension of the 2004MNRAS.350.1195M Meyer et al., HI Parkes All-Sky Survey, along with revised redshifts for all 5,317 HIPASS sources.
  • 759 xFLS objects from 2006AJ....131..250F Frayer et al., Spitzer 70 and 160 micron Observations of the Extragalactic First Look Survey.

Latest review papers LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

Highlights of recent additions to photometry:

Recent additions to NED's image database

6 April 2006 Revisions

Data for 166,000 objects linked to over 700 journal articles and catalogs, redshifts for 12,000 objects, 600,000 multiwavelength cross-IDs, and 500,000 photometric measurements have been added to NED since the previous public release. Highlights include:

Latest review papers in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

Highlights of recent additions to photometry:

Recent additions to NED's image database:

19 December 2005 Revisions

  • Forms to query objects, data, and references contain new options in the Output Format Specifications that provide machine-readable tabular output in XML VOTable format or as plain text (ASCII) with bar-separated or tab-separated values. VOTable format simplifies interoperability with other Virtual Observatory tools and services; bar-separated and tab-separated ASCII tables can be easily imported into spreadsheets and plotting packages.

  • 904,017 objects in the Spitzer Space Telescope First-Look Survey (FLS) and 273,541 objects in the ELAIS-N1 fields from KPNO images with detailed R-band photometry and positions from Fadda et al. (2004AJ....128....1F)

  • ~10,000 Northern Sky Cluster Survey (NSCS) clusters from Lopes et al. (2004AJ....128.1017L)

  • ~5,400 IC objects from Dreyer's IC1 and IC2.

  • ~2,000 Palomar Compact Groups (PCG) galaxies and groups from de Carvalho et al. (2005AJ....130..425D)

Highlights of recent additions to photometry:

18 October 2005 Revisions

Latest images available in NED's image database

9 August 2005 Revisions

  • 198,213 QUEST (QUasar Equatorial Survey Team) objects from 2004ApJ...617..184R.

  • 31,977 <"a href=/cgi-bin/nph-ex_refcode?refcode=20056dF...C...0000J">6dF DR2 galaxies and QSOs with redshifts.

  • 1599 VCDFS (VIMOS/VLT Chandra Deep Field Survey) objects from 2004A&A...428.1043L.

  • 425 RCS (Red-Sequence Cluster Survey) clusters from 2005ApJS..157....1G.

  • 233 MOST (Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope) radio sources from 2004MNRAS.355...44P.

Latest review papers in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

Latest images available in NED's image database

  • The 1.4-GHz VLA image for the Spitzer Space Telescope First-Look Survey field with 3565 objects from 2003AJ....125.2411C.

  • The 1.4-GHz Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) image for the Spitzer Space Telescope First-Look Survey verification region with 1048 objects from 2004A&A...424..371M.

  • J, H, and K FITS images of the central starburst regions of 24 objects from 1997AJ....113..162C.

28 April 2005 Revisions

*** NOTICE: On 2 May 2005 the legacy VT-100/X-Windows telnet interface to NED will be retired. ***

Latest review papers in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

22 April 2005 Revisions

  • Diameter Data Frames from

    • 2MASS 3,283,274 radii, equally divided between
      • r_k20fe radii at K = 20.0 mag sec^-2^ and
      • r_ext radii for "total" (extrapolated) magnitudes
    • 2MASS Large Galaxy Atlas 1310 radii (as above) for 655 galaxies
    • RC3: 45,922 diameters; including
      • 21,605 isophotal B-band log D_25 and log R_25 diameters and axis ratios with position angles if known;
      • 2,727 log A_e half-light diameters; and
      • 21,590 isophotal B-band log D_0 diameters corrected for inclination and Galactic extinction;

  • 22,187 contour maps for thousands of radio sources, collated from hundreds of papers dating from the 1960s to the 2000s, have been added to NED's image archive over the past 2-3 years.

  • 5000 objects from the GOODS-North Field in 2004AJ....127.3121W and 2004AJ....127.3137C.

  • Optical and near-infrared images for 57 nearby spiral galaxies from 2004A&A...426.1135K and 2003MNRAS.346..333K.

  • The first sets of images from the Spitzer Nearby Galaxies Survey, SINGS, are now available in FITS format. These include NGC 0337, NGC 2798, NGC 3198, NGC 4725, NGC 4826, NGC 5194, NGC 5195, NGC 5408, and NGC 7331.

22 December 2004 Revisions

  • NED is now providing Diameter Data Frames for a representative but large sampling of nearby galaxies and selected radio sources. In this initial release, a wide variety of optically measured diameters and exponential scale lengths are returned and tabulated for individual objects. The primary sources for these data are

    • UGC: 12,940 diameters, axis ratios, and position angles;
    • MCG: 49,359 diameters; including 21,591 "inner" diameters and 27,768 "outer" diameters;
    • ESO-B: 16,581 diameters and position angles (if given);
    • ESO-LV: 158,778 diameters; including
      • 15,120 B-band major axes, axis ratios, and position angles at D_25;
      • 14,870 B-band major axes at D_26;
      • 13,879 B-band major axes at D_27;
      • 14,937 major axes at 70% of total B light;
      • 15,160 major axes at 80% of total B light;
      • 15,301 major axes at 90% of total B light;
      • 14,073 major axes at 50% of total B light;
      • 13,817 diameters of the circular aperture enclosing 50% of total B light;
      • 11,486 B scale lengths for exponential disk fits;
      • 15,124 B scale lengths from fits to octants; and
      • 15,011 R scale lengths from fits to octants.

    Future releases will include isophotal optical diameters from RC3, 2MASS near-infrared diameters, and additional radio data. As time permits, the By-Parameter search capability will be augmented to allow all-sky searches using diameter constraints.

  • Improvements in the Near Name, Near Position, IAU Format, and Advanced All-Sky queries:

    • The Object Type constraints have been re-organized into Classified Extragalactic Objects, Unclassified Extragalactic Candidates, and Components of Galaxies.
    • A "Quick-Pick" button is available to simplify selection of only Classified Extragalactic Objects.
    • Among the Object Type constraints, over 20 categories of "Components of Galaxies" are now available for object inclusion or exclusion (query filters). These include supernovae, HII regions, variable stars, planetary nebulae, supernova remnants, star clusters, and various types of stars.
    • A new "Index of Constraint Types" appears on top of each menu.

  • In the By Name query menu, the default value of the "Extended name search?" option located under the Object name entry field has been changed to "No". Be sure to select "Yes" if you want related objects such as components of galaxy pairs, cluster members, or HII regions and variable stars located within the named object.

  • About 35,000 6dF DR1 galaxies and QSOs with their redshifts from MNRAS (in press).

  • About 2500 HII regions and star clusters in M33 from P. Hodge, B. Skelton, and J. Ashizawa "An Atlas of Local Group Galaxies", and various other papers, principally 1974A&A....37...33B and 1987A&A...174...28C.

  • 8000 objects from the Northern Sky Optical Cluster Survey (NSC) 2003AJ....125.2064G.

  • 8000 Nearby Cluster Galaxies 2004ApJS..153..397B.

  • 5000 Isolated Galaxies 2003ApJ...598..260P.

  • 3700 Low Surface Brightness Galaxies (LCSB) 2003A&A...405...99M.

  • 2000 Galaxies in southern bright star fields (SBSF) 2003A&A...406..593B.

14 June 2004 Revisions

  • The NED Team is now endeavoring to make available to its users individually resolved components of nearby galaxies. These new additions include HII regions and related emission-line objects, spectroscopically or radio-classified supernova remnants (SNR), planetary nebulae (PN), as well as star clusters. Finally, over 10,000 variable stars (V*) taken from The General Catalogue of Variable Stars, Vol. V: Extragalactic Variable Stars have now been incorporated into NED.

    A good test case that returns examples of many of these new entries can be found by making a By_Name search on the parent galaxy "NGC 0300".

  • 34,419 151MHz 6C sources, and their flux densities, from MNRAS 263, 25, 1993 and references therein.
  • The "Bright" sample of 11,204 galaxies from the Millenium Galaxy Catalog (MGC) in MNRAS 344, 307, 2003.
  • 4,819 infrared sources in the CHANDRA Deep Field from A&A 403, 493, 2003.
  • 3,221 galaxies in ABELL 1631 from ApJ 591, 764, 2003.
  • 1,103 radio sources in the VIRMOS VLT Deep Field from A&A 403, 857, 2003.

25 March 2004 Revisions

  • Through a collaboration with IRSA and the NVO, FITS images archived in NED can now be queried by Celestial Coordinates and Areal Coverage. This is in addition to the original capability to Search for Images by Object Name.
  • Version 2.0 of Aladin from CDS has been configured for visualization and interaction with images in the NED archive. When the Java applet is launched (after an image query by object name), overlay planes include markers for objects in NED, the USNO A-2.0, 2MASS Point Source, and NVSS catalogs.
  • New links to Cosmology Calculators and Extinction Calculators are available through NED's Main Menu(Home Page).
  • Some of the current review articles now available through LEVEL5: A Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology include
    • Maps of the Cosmos: The Cosmic Microwave Background by Lyman A. Page (2004)
    • The Evolutionary History of Local Group Irregular Galaxies by Eva K. Grebel (2004)
    • Interstellar Dust by B.T. Draine (2004)
    • The Interaction of Radio Sources and X-Ray-Emitting Gas in Cooling Flows by Elisabeth L. Blanton (2004)
    • Astrophysical Origins of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays by Diego F. Torres & Luis A. Anchordoqui (2004)
    • X-Ray Properties of Groups of Galaxies by John S. Mulchaey (2000)
    • An X-Ray View of Radio Sources by D.A. Schwartz (2004)
    • Observational Cosmology by R.H. Sanders (2004)
    • Dark Matter: Introduction by Martin J. Rees (2004)
    • The Evolution of Tidal Debris by J. Christopher Mihos (2004)
    • TASI Lectures: Introduction to Cosmology by Mark Trodden & Sean M. Carroll (2004)
    • Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy by E.D. Feigelson & G.J. Babu (2004)
    • Molecular Gas in Spiral Galaxies by Michele D. Thornley (2004)
    • Dark Matter: Early Considerations by Jaan Einasto (2004)
  • Over 130,000 SDSS galaxies with redshifts
  • Over 1000 HII regions in nine nearby galaxies including NGC 4395, NGC 5194, and NGC 6822.

30 June 2003 Revisions

15 May 2003 Revisions

14 January 2003 Revisions

  • The APM Galaxy Survey (Maddox et al.MNRAS 243, 692, 1990) has been loaded. The portion of the survey in NED includes about 3.0 million galaxies in the southern Galactic hemisphere with b <~ -40 deg, and Dec <~ +2.5 deg; and about 500,000 galaxies in the northern Galactic hemisphere between RA ~ 9h 30m to ~14h 30m, and Dec ~ +2.5 deg to ~ -7.5 deg.
  • 1.3 million sources from NVSS (Condon et al.AJ 115, 1693, 1998) are loaded. Work continues on the remaining 500,000 sources from this catalog.
  • 55,000 sources from WGACAT ( White, Giommi, and Angelini; 2000)) are loaded; work continues on this catalog, too.
  • 40,000 galaxies and QSOs from the SDSS Early Data Release (Stoughton et al.AJ 123, 485, 2002) have been loaded.
  • 37,000 redshifts from the 2df Galaxy Redshift Survey (Folkes et al.MNRAS 308, 459, 1999) have been loaded.
  • More than 5,000 HII regions in 13 large, nearby galaxies have also been loaded.
  • OASIS, an image visualization and manipulation tool, is now available for use with FITS images. Click on the OASIS logo on an image list page for more information about using OASIS.
  • A new version of ALADIN is also available. Again, click on the ALADIN logo to use the new version and for more information about the new features.

23 May 2002 Revisions

  • The Advanced All-Sky (formerly "By Parameter") menu provides new capabilities and improvements:
    • You may now select samples from NED based on flux density or magnitude limits. Photometrically constrained searches can be performed with optional joint constraints involving redshift, object types, survey name prefixes, or sky area. Available passbands ranging from gamma rays through the radio spectrum are conveniently labeled with standard names, as well as wavelength and frequency units. This powerful new tool makes use of the extensive multiwavelength coverage of over 4.5 million photometric data points fused in NED (using original and homogenized physical units) for hundreds of thousands of extragalactic objects.
    • A new Index of Constraint Types near the top of the menu is available to help you navigate the various search constrain regions.
    • New Tutorial Examples near the top of the menu will set the options to do various example searches for you. You may use these as guides to selecting your own sample from NED, or you may set the constraints yourself.
    • There are [Submit Query] buttons in each section of the menu to minimize the need for scrolling.
  • Preformatted text tables are now the default output for most searches. These substantially speed up data display for searches that return large numbers of objects. HTML tables, which are easier to read but slower to display, are still an option.
  • The "Output Format Specifications" section of all object query menus contains new options to sort by ascending or descending redshift.
  • NED's home page format has been adjusted to a more logical layout, with "Skyplot" and "Batch Jobs" moved to the "Tools" section.
  • Photometric and estimated redshifts are now displayed with the code PHOT or EST, respectively, in the QUAL column of the basic data display. This will make such non-spectroscopic redshifts easier to identify.
  • In addition to FITS images, NED is now beginning the process of scanning, archiving, and displaying JPEG images of radio contour plots (e.g. 3C 019, 3C 022, 3C 206, etc.) and 21-cm neutral hydrogen line profiles (e.g. UGC 03468, UGC 03578, etc.) extracted from the published literature. Many sources remain to be identified and scanned in, but new plots will appear as time and resources permit.
  • We have begun loading WGACAT (White, Giommi, and Angelini 2000), which was assembled from ROSAT PSPC pointed observations. 5500 sources are currently loaded; the remainder will be loaded over the summer.
  • The Tenth (2001) edition of A Catalogue of Quasars and Active Nuclei by M.-P. Veron-Cetty and P. Veron has been folded into NED with unique [VCV2001] names attached to each object.
  • The Woudt, Kraan-Korteweg catalog of >8,000 Galaxies Behind the Southern Milky Way (WKK) has been loaded.
  • The ROSAT Bright Sample (RBS) catalog has been incorporated.

20 March 2002 Revisions

  • 400,000 new photometric data points
  • 46,600 additional 2dFGRS objects and redshifts
  • 13,000 pointers to 1980-1984 radio literature from the Compendium of Extragalactic Radio Continuum Observations (CERCO; Gopal-Krishna et al., 1986)
  • 10,000 pointers to pre-1976 literature from RC1 and RC2
  • The Carnegie Atlas of Galaxies (images and notes) is now available in NED
  • Several thousand other new images, HI maps, rotation curves, spectra, etc.

18 December 2001 Revisions

  • 37,000 galaxies with redshifts from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey
  • 15,000 QSOs with redshifts from the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey
  • 250,000 new photometric measurements
  • Catalog and name prefix definitions are now available through hyperlinks in the query reports.
  • Photometric data tables and SEDs have been enhanced:
    • Data in published units and homogenized units (Jy vs. Hz) are displayed together by default.
    • By default SEDs are plotted using a "Fixed data range", meaning a fixed minimum and maximum in log (frequency) or log (wavelength) on the X axis and a fixed range of +/- 7 dex centered around the mid-point of the Y axis values. This has the advantage of maintaining a consistent slope for comparing SEDs. The "Autoscale data range" option can be selected to replot an SED inside a viewport computed using only the data values.
    • Error bars and point labels can be toggled on or off.
    • The SED plots can be clicked to zoom in at a position of interest (in a separate window). The zoom factor can be set, and the properties (error bars, point labels, data range, etc.) are inherited from the main plot.
    • Postscript versions of the SEDs (full-range and zoomed plots) can be downloaded.
    • In the data table, homogenized values are displayed in the same units as selected for the SED plot axes:
      X = log(Freq. [Hz]) or log(Wave [microns]) versus
      Y = log(F_nu [Jy]), log(F_nu [W m^-2 Hz^-1]), log(nu*F_nu [Jy-Hz]) , or log(nu*F_nu [W m^-2])
  • External Links to the SDSS, UZC, FCSS, and ATNF archives are provided as follows:
    • SDSS (spectra and catalog) and UZC (spectra) archive links appear when the object has a relevant source name (cross-ID).
      Examples: NGC 3720, NGC 1055, and NGC 1087
    • FCSS spectral archive links appear when the object has an FCSS name (cross-ID).
      Examples: NGC 1392 and FCC 223
    • A link to query the ATNF observation log appears for objects with DEC < +20 degrees.
      Examples with ATNF entries: NGC 1068 and AM 1925-724 (Super-Antenna).
  • External Links to NVSS, MAST and others have been updated to reflect URL changes at the archive centers
  • X-ray images from the first eight ROSAT CDs are available
  • Selected non-FITS images and scanned maps are now available in NED's image archive. Examples include images scanned from Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. (Click here to retrieve a list of all Arp objects from NED.)

24 September 2001 Revisions

  • 40,000 galaxies with redshifts from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
  • 4,000 galaxies from the Fornax Cluster Spectroscopic Survey
  • 1,200 DENIS galaxies near the Galactic plane
  • 400,000 photometric measurements
  • 120,000 FITS images
  • 43,000 redshifts
Catalogs in progress:
  • NVSS (~300,000 out of 1,800,000 sources)
  • APMUKS (2,310,000 out of 3,560,000 galaxies)

1 June 2001 Revisions

  • More than 520,000 extended sources -- with images -- from the 2MASS 2nd Incremental Release
  • More than 60,000 images for extended sources from the 2MASS 1st Incremental Release
  • ~18,000 WENSS 325MHz Survey sources
  • ~15,000 2QZ (2df QSO Redshift survey) sources
  • Updated information for the North and South Hubble Deep Fields
  • More than 200,000 references to NED objects from over 2,000 new papers

12 October 2000 Revisions

NED cited by Nature as a top ranked database for online astronomy research (October 2000).
  • ALADIN IMAGE DISPLAY AND SOURCE OVERLAY TOOL: Results of queries to NED's image archive now include icons like this , which when clicked launch the Aladin Java applet using the specified FITS image. An example illustrating these links is this retrieval of FITS images available for NGC 7469. This tool allows you to superimpose entries from NED, the USNO catalog and various other astronomical catalogs, and to interactively access related data and information for all known objects in the field. You can also measure interactively positions and distances in celestial coordinates. Unlike other programs of this nature, Aladin is a Java applet that requires no download or special installation steps on your computer, just a current Web browser version that supports Java applets. The driving motivation behind Aladin is to provide a visual summary of the multi-wavelength sky. Aladin was developed by François Bonnarel and Pierre Fernique and is configured with the NED interface through a cooperative agreement between NED and the CDS. More information about Aladin is available at the CDS.
  • Associations:New extragalactic sources and data for previously known sources are becoming available at an ever increasing rate and in larger numbers than ever before. In an effort to make large numbers of sources from new large-scale sky surveys accessible as soon as possible, NED now includes objects in complex regions where secure cross-identifications with objects already in NED have not yet been fully established. These relations are referred to as Associations, to distinguish them from the majority of relations in NED that have secure cross-identifications. Links to association information, when available, are listed in the Assoc column and in the links located next to the DSS image cutout in the Essential Data reports. An example with links leading to association data is provided with this By Name search on APMUKS(BJ) B003425.77-334949.0; these association data can also be viewed directly here. The information includes separations, position angles, and goodness-of-fit parameters from the process of correlating the positional uncertainty ellipses of the new object with those of nearby objects already in NED. More information is available in the Association Search Results Help.
  • Improved links to objects referenced in papers: Abstract pages include links (top and bottom) to search the database for all objects referenced in the paper; these links now indicate the number of objects involved. An example abstract is here, where you can Retrieve 173 NED objects in this paper.
  • Improved alignment of pre-formatted text used in the HTML reports from queries containing large result sets.

18 April 2000 Revisions

Welcome to the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). This is the tenth release of NED's World Wide Web-based interface. Changes since the previous release:

Search results now include convenient links to several other on-line image, catalog, and observing log services. Available resources include

  • Mission archives at
    • IRSA (2MASS, IRAS, MSX),
    • MAST (HST, IUE, EUVE, etc.),
    • HEASARC (HEAO, GINGA, EXOSAT, EINSTEIN, XTE, ROSAT, etc.),
  • Object and catalog data at CDS (SIMBAD and VizieR),
  • As well as IMPrESS (GSFC, ADF/ADC),
  • NVSS and FIRST (NRAO),
  • The VLA Observation Log,
  • Astrobrowse (HEASARC)
and several other services. For more information, see External Links.

22 March 2000 Revisions

This is the ninth release of NED's World Wide Web-based interface. Changes since the previous release:

  • The option of having a frames-based version of the WEB interface;
  • The Text Search option now searches the thesis abstracts in NED, as well as the journal abstracts and LEVEL5;
  • Individual reset buttons are now available on most data input pages;
  • Fast preformatted text output is now the default for By Parameter object searches; HTML formatted tables are a selectable option;
  • The Name Prefix selection lists have been updated to include many new catalogs;
  • "Quick-pick" option buttons/bars have been added for the two common equinoxes (B1950.0 and J2000.0), and for the name prefixes of NED's largest catalogs;
  • The first input box of each form is pre-selected so that you no longer have to click to begin typing in that box;
  • A list of Web Links to selected Internet sites is now included for easier access to astronomical services related to NED.

17 December 1999 Revisions

This is the eighth release of NED's World Wide Web-based interface. Changes since the previous release include a Text Search option, implementation of the Schlegel et al. foreground Galactic extinction for display on the object search results pages and in the coordinate calculator, and a link to the LEVEL5 Extragalactic Knowledgebase.

The fifth release inaugurated the use of the Informix Database Manager on upgraded Sun UltraSPARC servers at IPAC. Most users should see shorter database search times, though network transmission times will still be a major factor in NED's apparent speed.

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