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(Latest Revision: 22 June 2018)

June 2018 Release - The New Interface of NED

(Latest Revision: 22 Jun 2018)

The NED team is pleased to present a new user interface! The original web interface is being phased out and replaced with a modern, streamlined approach that simplifies and consolidates query forms, and provides interactive tables with linked graphics in the results.

Featured upgrades include:

  • A single search box on the main screen lets you easily search for objects by entering an object name, an object name or coordinates with a search radius, or a refcode. Image searches are also supported (click the ? icon by the search box for examples.)
  • Information for a single object is presented in a modern, convenient way:
    • A new Overview page summarizes key quantities, as available
    • Detailed data in different categories are organized in tabs
    • Integration of the IPAC Firefly toolkit provides interactive tables (including sorting, filtering, data downloads) and linked graphics
    • FITS images can be viewed in your browser using the IPAC Firefly image viewer (replaces the Aladin Java applet)
    • Documentation has been updated and re-organized (see Information in the main menu bar above)
  • Modernized forms for the calculators (under Tools in the menu bar): coordinate transforms, Galactic extinction, and velocity corrections
  • References now link to the new ADS interface
  • New API to query the NED Object Directory using the VO Table Access Protocol (TAP)

Some familiar NED features are not yet integrated into the new interface: Search Objects by IAU Name, Search Objects by Classifications, Build Data Table from Input List, Search References by Object Name, the Galaxy Environment tool, and Level 5. These will be included in upcoming releases, and meanwhile they remain available in the 'Classic Services' menu option (above). Please refer to the Known Issues page for more information.

We welcome your feedback and comments.

November 2017 Release Highlights

Notice

We are seeking input from people interested in testing and providing feedback to the NED team on the latest version of the New User Interface. A list of the new features can be found here. For access instructions, please contact us.

Database Contents

Tabular summaries of NED's current holdings are presented here. Graphic summaries are presented here.

References and Object Pointers

  • 3,474,235 new object links (pointers) to 1,872 new references
  • 150,000,000 2MASS Point Source Catalog sources from The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) (Skrutskie, M. F. et al. 2006AJ....131.1163S)

    Fundamental parameters for 471 million sources in the 2MASS Point Source Catalog (PSC) are being integrated into NED using an updated data ingestion and cross-matching pipeline. This release contains the results of cross-matching 150 million sources (32% of the entire catalog) that are located at declination south of -37 degrees. Among these 2MASS PSC sources, 92% are new objects to NED, and 8% have new cross-identifications with prior NED objects, including the fusion of their photometric data into object SEDs. Cross-matching and data fusion for the rest of the catalog is in progress in the Production database, and will be available in a NED update in early 2018.

Cross-IDs

Redshift-Independent Distances

Photometry

585 new photometric data points integrated into SEDs, including:
  • VIS : VLT fluxes from Metallicity evolution, metallicity gradients, and gas fractions at z ~ 3.4 (Troncoso, P. et al. 2014A&A...563A..58T)
  • RADIO : ATCA fluxes from A Deep Chandra ACIS Survey of M83 (Long, Knox et al. 2014ApJS..212...21L)
  • SUBMM : Planck and Herschel fluxes from The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey. XV. Planck submillimetre sources in the Virgo Cluster(Baes M. et al. 2014MNRAS.437.3063K)
  • XRAY : Fermi fluxes from Why are some BL Lacertaes detected by Fermi, but others not? (Wu, Zhongzu et al. 2014A&A...562A..64W)

Latest Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


June-July 2017 Release Highlights

Notice

Some objects that were assigned a SDSS-DR13 spectroscopic redshift as the highest-ranked ("preferred") value in the 2017 June NED release were later found to be inconsistent with previously established redshifts in NED. In the July 20 NED update, the preferred redshift for such objects have been returned to the values assigned prior to June 28, 2017. If you used redshifts or information derived from redshifts between June 29 and July 20, 2017, we encourage you to access NED again for the latest updates. We apologize for any inconvenience.

It is important to note that as the volume, rate, and complexity of data flowing into NED grow, the team is continuously refining and vetting the results of rule-based algorithms that assign ranks and select "preferred" values of fundamental measurements such as the positions and redshifts that appear by default in object search results. Therefore, the highest ranked values will continue to change over time as new data are merged into the database and ranking criteria become more sophisticated via scientific vetting. Also, we encourage users interested in comparing the uncertainties, measurement methods and other metadata, or investigating potential physical differences among the individual measurements available from various survey catalogs and publications, to inspect the detailed data frames available in NED.

Database Contents

Tabular summaries of NED's current holdings are presented here. Graphic summaries are presented here.

Redshifts

Photometry

3,231 new photometric data points integrated into SEDs, including:
  • RADIO : VLA fluxes from X-ray emission from star-forming galaxies - III. Calibration of the LX-SFR relation up to redshift z ~ 1.3 (Mineo, S. et al. 2014MNRAS.437.1698M)
  • VIS : VLT magnitudes from On the connection between the intergalactic medium and galaxies: the H I-galaxy cross-correlation at z <~ 1 (Tejos, Nicolas et al. 2014MNRAS.437.2017T)
  • XRAY : Chandra fluxes from First X-ray observations of low-power compact steep spectrum sources (Kunert-Bajraszewska, M. et al. 2014MNRAS.437.3063K)

Images

  • 44 images from Powerful Activity in the Bright Ages. I. A Visible/IR Survey of High Redshift 3C Radio Galaxies and Quasars (Hilbert et al. 2016ApJS..225...12H)

Spectra

  • 81,001 spectra from The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: survey design and first data release (Drinkwater et al. 2010MNRAS.401.1429D)
  • 64 spectra from Optical Spectra of a Complete Sample of Radio Sources. I. The Spectra (Lawrence et al. 1996ApJS..107..541L)

Latest Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


May 2017 Release Highlights

Database Contents

Tabular and graphical summaries of NED's current holdings are presented here.

References and Object Pointers

  • Over 650,000 new objects with spectroscopic redshifts from the SDSS DR13 Optical Spectra Catalog ( 2016SDSSD.C...0000: ); see also http://www.sdss.org/dr13/spectro/ .
  • 354,866 new object links (pointers) to 854 new references including:
  •     327,106 WINGS sources from OmegaWINGS: OmegaCAM-VST observations of WINGS galaxy clusters (Gullieuszik, M. et al. 2015A&A...581A..41G )

Cross-IDs


March 2017 Release Highlights

Database Contents

Tabular and graphical summaries of NED's current holdings are presented here.

New Interface

Progress and status of our next generation interface are posted here.

References and Object Pointers

2,211,822 new object links (pointers) to 1,562 new references including:
  • 137,796 Infrared sources (S-CANDELS) from S-CANDELS: The Spitzer-Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Survey. Survey Design, Photometry, and Deep IRAC Source Counts (Ashby, M.L.N. et al. 2015ApJS..218...33A )
  • 59,192 Radio sources from the Nature and evolution of powerful radio galaxies at z ~ 1 and their link with the quasar luminosity function (van Velzen, S. et al. 2015MNRAS.446.2985V )
  • 23,347 Swift AGNs (SACS) and clusters of galaxies (SWCL) from The SWIFT AGN and Cluster Survey. (Dai, X. et al. 2015ApJS..218....8D )
  • 581,945 galaxies from The connection between galaxy structure and quenching efficiency (Omand, C. et al. 2014MNRAS.440..843O )
  • 184,834 quasars from The second release of the Large Quasar Astrometric Catalog (LQAC-2) (Souchay, J. et al. 2012A&A...537A..99S )
  • 18,093 Star clusters from A comprehensive HST BVI catalogue of star clusters in five Hickson compact groups of galaxies (Fedotov, K. et al. 2015MNRAS.449.2937F )

Cross-IDs and New Objects

  • 351,184 sources from the literature cross-identified with NED objects
  • 138,219 new NED objects

Redshifts

  • 186,940 additional redshifts
  • 7,496 more objects with redshifts

Photometry

19,668 new photometric data points integrated into SEDs, including:
  • XRAY : 0.3-10 keV fluxes from An Environmental Study of the Ultraluminous X-Ray Source Population in Early-type Galaxies (Plotkin, Richard. M. et al. 2014ApJ...780....6P)
  • VIS and NIR : HST, VLT, and Spitzer fluxes from Tracing the Mass Growth and Star Formation Rate Evolution of Massive Galaxies from z ~ 6 to z ~ 1 in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (Lundgren, Britt F. et al. 2014ApJ...780...34L)
  • SUBMM : Herschel fluxes from HerMES: Candidate High-redshift Galaxies Discovered with Herschel/SPIRE (Dowell, C. Darren et al. 2014ApJ...780...75D)

Images

  • 90 images from Maps of the Magellanic Clouds from Combined South Pole Telescope and PLANCK Data (Crawford et al. 2016ApJS..227...23C)
  • 14 images from On the Classification of UGC 1382 as a Giant Low Surface Brightness Galaxy (Hagen et al. 2016ApJ...826..210H)
  • 214 images from The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Early Data Release (Allen et al. 2015MNRAS.446.1567A)
  • 65 images from Investigations of dust heating in M81, M83 and NGC 2403 with the Herschel Space Observatory (Bendo et al. 2012MNRAS.419.1833B)

Spectra

  • 4041 spectra from Update on H I data collection from Green Bank, Parkes and Arecibo telescopes for the Cosmic Flows project (Courtois and Tully, 2015MNRAS.447.1531C)
  • 366 spectra from COLD GASS, an IRAM legacy survey of molecular gas in massive galaxies - I. Relations between H_2_, H I, stellar content and structural properties (Saintonge et al. 2011MNRAS.415...32S)
  • 6 spectra from 3-5 micron Spectroscopy of Obscured AGNs in ULIRGs (Sani et al. 2008ApJ...675...96S)

Latest Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


December 2016 Release Highlights

Database Contents

Tabular and graphical summaries of NED's current holdings are presented here.

New Interface

Progress and status of our next generation interface are posted here.

References and Object Pointers

1,066,699 new object links (pointers) to 508 new references including:
  • 854,328 galaxies from Stellar Masses and Star Formation Rates for 1M Galaxies from SDSS+WISE (Chang, Yu-Yen et al. 2015ApJS..219....8C )
  • 100,112 quasars from The large quasar reference frame (LQRF) (Andrei, A. H . et al. 2009A&A...505..385A )
  • 108,467 quasars from The construction of the large quasar astrometric catalogue (LQAC) (Souchay, J. et al. 2009A&A...494..799S )
  • 2,191 quasars from Auxilliary Quasar Solution for the QSOs that were matched to ICRF2 sources in Gaia DR1 (Gaia Collaboration 2016yCat.1337....0G )

Redshift-Independent Distances

Photometry

6,160 new photometric data points including:
  • RADIO : 1.4 GHz fluxes from mJIVE-20: A Survey for Compact mJy Radio Objects with the Very Long Baseline Array (Deller, A.T. and Middelberg, E. 2014AJ....147...14D)
  • VIS : KPNO magnitudes from Beyond the Brim of the Hat: Kinematics of Globular Clusters out to Large Radii in the Sombrero Galaxy (Dowell, Jessica L. et al. 2014AJ....147..150D)
  • NIR : Magnitudes from New 2MASS Near-infrared Photometry for Globular Clusters in M31 (Wang, Song et al. 2014AJ....148....4W)

Images

  • 20 images from The resolved star-formation relation in nearby active galactic nuclei (Casasola et al. 2015A&A...577A.135C)

Spectra

  • 469 spectra from A Uniform Analysis of the Ly{alpha} Forest at z = 0-5. III. Hubble Space Telescope Faint Object Spectrograph Spectral Atlas (Bechtold et al. 2002ApJS..140..143B)
  • 39 spectra from A Uniform Analysis of the Ly{alpha} Forest at z = 0-5. I. The Sample and Distribution of Clouds at z > 1.7 (Scott et al. 2000ApJS..130...37S)
  • 6 spectra from Simulation Analysis of Lyman-alpha forest spectra. I Empirical description at z ~ (Dobrzycki and Bechtold 1996ApJ...457..102D)
  • 33 spectra from The Lyman-alpha forest near 34 Quasi-Stellar objects with z > 2.6 (Jill Bechtold 1994ApJS...91....1B)

Latest Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


October 2016 Release Highlights

Spitzer Source List

We have cross-matched the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products (SEIP) Source List with NED, integrating selected quantities including photometry in 5 IR bands:
  • 42,089,764 SSTSL2 sources from the SEIP cross-matched with NED, yielding:
    • 37.4 million new NED objects
    • 4.7 million cross-IDs to existing NED objects
  • 360.5 million photometric data points in the IRAC 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0 micron, and the MIPS 24 micron bands.


August-September 2016 Revisions

References and Object Pointers

2,049,873 new object links (pointers) to 962 new references including:
  • 1,723,545 candidate QSOs from Quasar candidates selection in the Virtual Observatory era (D'Abrusco, R. et al. 2009MNRAS.396..223D )
  • 34,929 galaxies in the GOODS-CDFS field from CANDELS Multi-wavelength Catalogs: GOODS-South Field (Guo Y. et al. 2013ApJS..207...24G )
  • 16,910 galaxies in the COMBO-17 field from A Public, K-Selected, Optical-to-Near-Infrared Catalog of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (ECDFS) from the Multiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC) Taylor E.N. et al. 2009ApJS..183..295T )
  • 3,414 ICRF radio sources from The Second Realization of the International Celestial Reference Frame by Very Long Baseline Interferometry (Fey, A. L. et al. 2015AJ....150...58F )
  • 2,224 star clusters in M51 from A Catalog of Bright Star Clusters in the Interacting Galaxy M51 (Hwang, N. and Lee, M.G. 2008AJ....135.1567H )

Cross-IDs and New Objects

  • 210,889 sources from the literature cross-identified with NED objects
  • 67,048 new NED objects

Redshifts

  • 34,993 additional redshifts
  • 4,929 more objects with redshifts

Photometry

3,067 new photometric data points, including:
  • VIS : BATC magnitudes from Age and Mass Studies for Young Star Clusters in M31 from SEDS-FIT (Wang, Song et al. 2012AJ....144..191W)
  • UV and IR: GALEX and WISE magnitudes from Multi-wavelength study of 14000 star-forming galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (Izotov, Y. I. et al. 2014A&A...561A..33I)
  • RADIO : VLA HI flux from VLA-ANGST: A High-resolution H I Survey of Nearby Dwarf Galaxies (Ott, Jurgen et al. 2012AJ....144..123O)

Images

  • 46 images from CARMA Survey toward Infrared-bright Nearby Galaxies (STING). III. The Dependence of Atomic and Molecular Gas Surface Densities on Galaxy Properties (Wong, Tony et al. 2013ApJ...777L...4W)
  • 118 images from Nobeyama CO Atlas of Nearby Spiral Galaxies: Distribution of Molecular Gas in Barred and Nonbarred Spiral Galaxies (Kuno, Nario et al. 2007PASJ...59..117K)
  • 214 images from Resolved atomic super-clouds in spiral galaxies (R. Braun 1995A&AS..114..409B)

Spectra

  • 10,643 spectra from zCOSMOS: A Large VLT/VIMOS Redshift Survey Covering 0 < z < 3 in the COSMOS Field (S. J. Lilly et al. 2007ApJS..172...70L)

Latest Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


June-July 2016 Revisions

User Interface

Try our next-generation user interface, which features a Simple Search box on the main screen.

In response to a query such as "NGC 1365 images" in the Simple Search box (or using the image search form), the results can be rapidly sorted on various columns (e.g., spectral region) and searched for any string. A link to the IRSA Finderchart service enables users to change the field of view, or interact with imagery from major sky surveys such as 2MASS, WISE, and SDSS at the same location.

Database Contents

Tabular and graphical summaries of NED's current holdings are presented here.

References and Object Pointers

  • 995,490 new object links (pointers) to 1,335 new references including:
  • 637,408 galaxies and galaxy groups from Galaxy Groups in the SDSS DR4 (Yang, X. et al. 2007ApJ...671..153Y )
  • 279,780 SDSS QSOs from The Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar catalog: tenth data release (Paris, I. et al. 2014A&A...563A..54P )
  • 22,466 SDSS DR7 QSOs from Tracing a high redshift cosmic web with quasar systems (Einasto, M. et al. 2014A&A...568A..46E )
  • 355 SMC stars and star clusters from A slitless spectroscopic survey for H{alpha} emission-line objects in SMC clusters (Hales, C. et al. 2010A&A...509A..11M )

Photometry

  • MIR : Gemini, VLT and Subaru fluxes from The subarcsecond mid-infrared view of local active galactic nuclei - I. The N- and Q-band imaging atlas (Asmus, D. et al. 2014MNRAS.439.1648A
  • VIS : KPNO magnitudes from An Updated Catalog of M33 Clusters and Candidates: UBVRI Photometry and Some Statistical Results (Ma, Jun 2012AJ....144...41M
  • IR : WISE magnitudes from SDSS Quasars in the WISE Preliminary Data Release and Quasar Candidate Selection with Optical/Infrared Colors (Wu, Xues-Bing et al. 2012AJ....144...49W

Images

  • 116 images and cubes from The ATLAS3D project - XVIII. CARMA CO imaging survey of early-type galaxies (Alatalo et al. 2013MNRAS.432.1796A)
  • 385 images and cubes from The ATLAS3D project - XIII. Mass and morphology of H I in early-type galaxies as a function of environment (Serra et al. 2012MNRAS.422.1835S)

Spectra

  • 436 spectra from The ATLAS 3D project - IV. The molecular gas content of early-type galaxies (Young et al. 2011MNRAS.414..940Y)
  • 83 spectra from Molecular gas and star formation in the SAURON early-type galaxies (Combes et al. 2007MNRAS.377.1795C)

Latest Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


March-May 2016 Revisions

User Interface

Try our next-generation user interface, which features a Simple Search box on the main screen.

In response to a query such as "NGC 1365 images" in the Simple Search box (or using the image search form), the results can be rapidly sorted on various columns (e.g., spectral region) and searched for any string. A link to the IRSA Finderchart service enables users to change the field of view, or interact with imagery from major sky surveys such as 2MASS, WISE, and SDSS at the same location.

Database Contents

Tabular and graphical summaries of NED's current holdings are presented here.

References and Object Pointers

  • 1,094,528 new object links (pointers) to 814 new references

Cross-IDs and New Objects

  • 252,341 sources from the literature cross-identified with NED objects
  • 71,412 new NED objects

Featured Additions to Objects and Basic Data

  • 63,111 galaxies in the Shapley supercluster from Shapley Optical Survey (Mercurio, A. et al. 2006MNRAS.368..109M )
  • 56,152 COSMOS, AEGIS, GEMS, and GOODS galaxies from Bulgeless Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift (Bizzocchi, L. et al. 2014ApJ...782...22B )
  • 17,019 galaxies and redshifts observed with Hectospec from SHELS: A Complete Galaxy Redshift Survey with R <= 20.6 (Geller, M. et al. 2014ApJS..213...35G )
  • 2,531 radio sources in the CDF-S and ELAIS-S1 fields from ATLAS 1.4 GHz Data Release 2 (Hales, C. et al. 2014MNRAS.441.2555H )
  • 4,364 HII regions in M31 from A New Catalog of H II Regions in M31 (Galametz, A. et al. 2011AJ....142..139A )
  • Over new 600 supernovae from ASASSN, DES, GAIA, MASTER, MLS, and SNHunt surveys via hundreds of ATels ( The Astronomer's Telegram )

Redshift-Independent Distances

Images

  • 919 images from CHANG-ES. IV. Radio Continuum Emission of 35 Edge-on Galaxies Observed with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in D Configuration---Data Release 1. (Wiegert et al. 2015AJ....150...81W)
  • 783 images from The subarcsecond mid-infrared view of local active galactic nuclei - I. The N- and Q-band imaging atlas (Asmus et al. 2014MNRAS.439.1648A)

Spectra

  • 497 spectra from The Extragalactic Distance Database: All Digital H I Profile Catalog (Courtois et al. 2009AJ....138.1938C)
  • 176 spectra from HI observations of edge-on spiral galaxies (Huchtmeier et al. 2005A&A...435..459H)
  • 4 spectra from Irregular galaxies with extended HI emission (Hunter D. A., Gallagher J. S. III. 1985AJ.....90.1789H)
  • 2 spectra from Gas dynamics in barred spiral galaxies - II. NGC 7496 and 289 (Pence W. D., Balckman C. P. 1984MNRAS.210..547P)

Latest Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


January-February 2016 Revisions

User Interface

Try our next-generation user interface, which features a Simple Search box on the main screen. Results from searching Objects and Unprocessed Catalog Sources and Source Nomenclature now have improved table formatting, with options to change the number of rows per page, to sort on selected columns, and to search all columns.

Database Contents

Tabular and graphical summaries of NED's current holdings are presented here.

References and Object Pointers

  • 43,411 new object links (pointers) to 1,207 new references including:
  • 5,835 galaxies from A Catalog of Visually Classified Galaxies in the Local (z ~ 0.01) Universe (Ann, H. B. et al., 2015ApJS..217...27A)
  • 2,735 2FGL sources from Refining the Associations of the Fermi Large Area Telescope Source Catalogs (Massaro, F. et al., 2015ApJS..217....2M)
  • 2,673 galaxies from Box/peanut and bar structures in edge-on and face-on nearby galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - I. Catalogue (Yoshino, A. and Yamauchi, C. 2015MNRAS.446.3749Y)
  • 1,187 Supernova Remnants in 18 galaxies from Optical supernova remnants in nearby galaxies and their influence on star formation rates derived from Halpha emission Vucetic M.M.. et al., 2015MNRAS.446..943V)
  • 733 galaxies from Halpha3: an Halpha imaging survey of HI selected galaxies from ALFALFA . V. The Coma supercluster survey completion (Gavazzi, G. et al., 2015A&A...576A..16G)
  • 149 Globular clusters in M31 from M31 Globular Clusters in the Hubble Space Telescope Archive. I. Cluster Detection and Completeness (Bond, H.E. 2015AJ....149..132B)
  • 82 Planetary Nebulae in 6 galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope Snapshot Search for Planetary Nebulae in Globular Clusters of the Local Group (Barmby, P. and Huchra. J.P. 2001AJ....122.2458B)

Photometry

  • Vis : V and B magnitudes from The Observed Properties of Dwarf Galaxies in and around the Local Group (McConnachie, Alan W. 2012AJ....144....4M)
  • MIR : Gemini fluxes from The Nuclear Infrared Emission of Low-luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei (Mason, R. E. et al. 2012AJ....144...11M)

Redshift-Independent Distances

Images

  • 768 images from The Spitzer Local Volume Legacy (LVL) global optical photometry (Cook, David O. et al. 2014MNRAS.445..881C)

Spectra

  • 28 spectra from A spectral atlas of H II galaxies in the near-infrared (Martins, Lucimara P. et al. 2013MNRAS.431.1823M)
  • 371 spectra from Spectrophotometry of Nearby Field Galaxies: The Data (Rolf A. Jansen et al. 2000ApJS..126..331J)
  • 258 spectra from A study of the large-scale structure in the distribution of galaxies centered about the Cancer cluster. II. (Bicay M.D., Giovanelli R. 1986AJ.....91..732B)

Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


August-December 2015 Revisions

User Interface

Try our next-generation user interface, which features a Simple Search box on the main screen. Results from searching Objects and Unprocessed Catalog Sources and Source Nomenclature now have improved table formatting, with options to change the number of rows per page, to sort on selected columns, and to search all columns.

Database Contents

Tabular and graphical summaries of NED's current holdings are presented here.

References and Object Pointers

  • 2,301 new references
  • 138,279 new object links (pointers) to references

Photometry

  • 7,543 photometric data points for 3,132 objects, from 59 references
  • Radio : 22 cm fluxes from The Radio Continuum-Star Formation Rate Relation in WSRT SINGS Galaxies (Heesen, V. et al., 2014AJ....147..103H)
  • Far-IR : SPIRE fluxes from The Spectral Energy Distributions and Infrared Luminosities of z ~ 2 Dust-obscured Galaxies from Herschel and Spitzer (Melbourne, J. et al. 2012AJ....143..125M)
  • Near-IR : WISE and Spitzer fluxes from Extending the Nearby Galaxy Heritage with WISE: First Results from the WISE Enhanced Resolution Galaxy Atlas (Jarrett, T. H. et al., 2013AJ....145....6J)
  • Visual and Near-IR : HST and Spitzer IRAC magnitudes from Old Massive Globular Clusters and the Stellar Halo of the Dwarf Starburst Galaxy NGC 4449 (Strader, Jay et al. 2012AJ....143...52S)
  • Visual: UH88 and Subaru magnitudes from Discovery of Four Doubly Imaged Quasar Lenses from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (Inada, N. et al., 2014AJ....147..153I)
  • UV : GALEX fluxes from Gas, Stars, and Star Formation in ALFALFA Dwarf Galaxies (Huang, Shan et al. 2012AJ....143..133H)
  • X-ray : XMM fluxes from XMM-Newton Observations of Luminous Sources in Nearby Galaxies NGC 4395, NGC 4736, and NGC 4258 (Akyuz, A. et al., 2013AJ....145...67A)

Redshift-Independent Distances

Images

  • 319 images from CHANG-ES. IV. Radio Continuum Emission of 35 Edge-on Galaxies Observed with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in D Configuration---Data Release 1 (Wiegert, T. et al. 2015AJ....150...81W)
  • 138 images from Multiwavelength study of the nuclei of a volume-limited sample of galaxies - II. Optical, infrared and radio observations (Lira, P. et al. 2007MNRAS.382.1552L)
  • 768 images from Quantified H I morphology - II. Lopsidedness and interaction in WHISP column density maps (Holwerda, B. W. et al. 2011MNRAS.416.2415H)

Spectra

  • 46 spectra from Multiwavelength study of the nuclei of a volume-limited sample of galaxies - II. Optical, infrared and radio observations (Lira, P. et al. 2007MNRAS.382.1552L)
  • 21 spectra from Studies of galaxies in voids. I. H I observations of Blue Compact Galaxies (Pustilnik, S. A. et al. 2002A&A...389..405P)
  • 272 spectra from The Hamburg Quasar Survey. III. Further new bright quasars (Hagen, H. -J. et al. 1999A&AS..134..483H)
  • 98 spectra from The Hamburg Quasar Survey. II. A first list of 121 quasars (Engels, D. et al. 1998A&AS..128..507E)
  • 16 spectra from The NGC 4005 group - A rotating system of galaxies? (Williams, B. A. 1986ApJ...311...25W)

Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


April-July 2015 Revisions

User Interface Upgrades

The new user interface contains the following advances:
  • A smart box on the main screen greatly simplifies common queries using a single entry point. You can enter an object name, an object name and search radius, coordinates and search radius, a refcode, or a ticket number (to check the status of a ByParameters search request). Most standard input formats for celestial coordinates are supported.
  • A new form to Search for Images by Object Name provides a response in the new interface style and paves the way for new functionality under development.

Database Contents

Tabular and graphical summaries of NED's current holdings are presented here.

Cross-IDs and New Objects

  • 383,691 sources from the literature cross-identified with NED objects
  • 79,226 new NED objects

References and Object Pointers

  • 830 new references
  • 278,729 new object links (pointers) to references

Featured Additions to Objects and Basic Data

  • 4,740 new parts of galaxies (molecular clouds, globular clusters, stars) from 8 different journal articles.
  • 54,213 QSOs in SDSS DR9 from The BOSS Ly-{alpha} Forest Sample from SDSS Data Release 9 (Lee, K. et al. 2013AJ....145...69L)
  • 35,448 galaxies from CANDELS Multiwavelength Catalogs: Source Identification and Photometry in the CANDELS UKIDSS Ultra-deep Survey Field (Galametz, A. et al. 2013ApJS..206...10G)
  • 25,356 galaxies observed with Hectospec from Measuring the Ultimate Halo Mass of Galaxy Clusters: Redshifts and Mass Profiles from the Hectospec Cluster Survey (HeCS) (Rines, K. et al. 2013ApJ...767...15R)
  • 101,997 QSOs in SDSS DR7 from SDSS Quasars in the WISE Preliminary Data Release and Quasar Candidate Selection with Optical/Infrared Colors (Wu, X. et al. 2012AJ....144...49W)
  • 50,836 QSOs and Lenses in SDSS DR7 from The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Lens Search. V. Final Catalog from the Seventh Data Release (Inada, N. et al. 2012AJ....143..119I)
  • 10,443 Galaxy Groups from Multiscale probability mapping: groups, clusters and an algorithmic search for filaments in SDSS (Smith, A. et al. 2012MNRAS.422...25S)
  • 6,722 Herschel-Atlas infrared sources from Herschel-ATLAS: first data release of the Science Demonstration Phase source catalogues (Rigby, E. E. et al. 2011MNRAS.415.2336R)
  • 5,686 Galaxy Groups from Compact groups in theory and practice - IV. The connection to large-scale structure (Mendel, J. et al. 2011MNRAS.418.1409M)
  • 3,397 Galaxy Groups from The Padova-Millennium Galaxy and Group Catalogue (PM2GC): the group-finding method and the PM2GC catalogues of group, binary and single field galaxies (Calvi, R. et al. 2011MNRAS.416..727C)

Photometry

  • Radio: 2.3 GHz fluxes from Multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Interferometric Observations of the Nuclear Starburst Region of NGC 253... (Rampadarath, H. et al. 2014AJ....147....5R)
  • Visual: HST and Lick magnitudes from The Type IIb Supernova 2013df and its Cool Supergiant Progenitor (Van Dyk, S. et al. 2014AJ....147...37V)
  • Millimeter: CARMA CO(1-0) fluxes from Discovery of a Small Central Disk of CO and H I in the Merger Remnant NGC 34 (Fernandez, X. et al. 2014AJ....147...74F)

Redshift-Independent Distances

Images

  • 119 images from The Global Rate and Efficiency of Star Formation in Spiral Galaxies as a Function of Morphology and Environment (Young, Judith. et al. 1996AJ....112.1903Y)

Spectra

  • 373 spectra from Red-channel (6000-8000 A) nuclear spectra of 376 local galaxies (Gavazzi, Giuseppe et al. 2013A&A...558A..68G)
  • 14 spectra from High-redshift QSOs in the FIRST survey (Benn, C. R. et al. 2002MNRAS.329..221B)
  • 127 spectra from The peculiar velocity of the local group-I. HI observations of Sb and Sbc galaxies (Staveley-Smith, L. & Davies, R. D. 1987MNRAS.224..953S)
  • 119 spectra from Neutral hydrogen in isolated galaxies. IV. Results for the Arecibo sample (Haynes M.P., & Giovanelli R. 1984AJ.....89..758H)
  • 192 spectra from An HI survey of southern galaxies ( Reif, K. et al. 1982A&AS...50..451R)

Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

December 2014-April 2015 Revisions

User Interface Upgrades

The new user interface contains the following advances:
  • A smart box on the main screen greatly simplifies common queries using a single entry point. You can enter an object name, an object name and search radius, coordinates and search radius, a refcode, or a ticket number (to check the status of a ByParameters search request). Most standard input formats for celestial coordinates are supported.
  • A new form to Search for Images by Object Name provides a response in the new interface style and paves the way for new functionality under development.

Cross-IDs and New Objects

  • 324,187 sources from the literature cross-identified with NED objects
  • 38,712 new NED objects

References and Object Pointers

  • 1,682 new references
  • 441,720 new object links (pointers) to references

Featured Additions to Objects and Basic Data

  • 9,900 new parts of galaxies (HII regions, globular clusters, planetary nebulae) from 68 different journal articles
  • 74 new supernovae published through Dec 2014 (CBAT)
  • 4,381 galaxies from WINGS-SPE. III. Equivalent width measurements, spectral properties, and evolution of local cluster galaxies (Fritz, J. et al. 2014A&A...566A..32F)
  • 428 galaxies and radio sources from Radio-Optical Reference Frame Link Using the U.S. Naval Observatory Astrograph and Deep CCD Imaging (Zacharias, N. & Zacharias, M. I. 2014AJ....147...95Z)
  • 1,515 galaxies from Tracing the Mass Growth and Star Formation Rate Evolution of Massive Galaxies from z ~ 6 to z ~ 1 in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (Lundgren, Britt F. et al. 2014ApJ...780...34L)
  • 528 X-ray sources in the field of MESSIER 031 from Around 200 New X-Ray Binary IDs from 13 yr of Chandra Observations of the M31 Center (Barnard, R. et al. 2014ApJ...780...83B)
  • 1,158 galaxies from Mapping Compound Cosmic Telescopes Containing Multiple Projected Cluster-scale Halos (Ammons, S. Mark et al. 2014ApJ...781....2A)
  • 2,478 galaxies in the field of ABELL 0383 from A Redshift Survey of the Strong-lensing Cluster Abell 383 (Geller, Margaret J. et al. 2014ApJ...783...52G)
  • 1,258 giant molecular clouds from The PdBI Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey (PAWS): Environmental Dependence of Giant Molecular Cloud Properties in M51 (Colombo, Dario et al. 2014ApJ...784....3C)
  • 4,199 2XLSSd X-ray sources from Classification and environmental properties of X-ray selected point-like sources in the XMM-LSS field (Melnyk, et al 2013A&A...557A..81M)
  • 2,123 objects around 6 galaxy clusters from The Contribution of Halos with Different Mass Ratios to the Overall Growth of Cluster-sized Halos (Lemze, et al. 2013ApJ...776...91L)
  • 1,778 galaxies from Faint Tidal Features in Galaxies within the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey Wide Fields (Atkinson, et al. 2013ApJ...765...28A)
  • 1,544 millimeter sources from Extragalactic Millimeter-wave Point-source Catalog, Number Counts and Statistics from 771 deg^2^ of the SPT-SZ Survey (Mocanu, et al. 2013ApJ...779...61M)
  • 1,796 more NEP objects from Hectospec and Hydra Spectra of Infrared Luminous Sources in the AKARI North Ecliptic Pole Survey Field (Shim, Hyunjin et al. 2013ApJS..207...37S)
  • 2,190 more WHL galaxy clusters from Substructure and dynamical state of 2092 rich clusters of galaxies derived from photometric data (Wen, Z. L. & Han, J. L. 2013MNRAS.436..275W)
  • 808 PiGSS radio sources from The Allen Telescope Array Pi GHz Sky Survey. III. The ELAIS-N1, Coma, and Lockman Hole Fields (Croft, Steve; Bower, Geoffrey C.; & Whysong, David 2013ApJ...762...93C)
  • 4,869 QSOs from The large area KX quasar catalogue - I. Analysis of the photometric redshift selection and the complete quasar catalogue (Maddox, Natasha et al. 2012MNRAS.424.2876M)
  • 2,976 XDEEP2 X-ray sources from The Chandra X-Ray Point-source Catalog in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey Fields (Goulding, A. D. et al. 2012ApJS..202....6G)

Redshift-Independent Distances

Images

  • 1,597 images from Optical imaging for the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies. Data release and notes on interacting galaxies (Knapen,Johan H. et al. 2014A&A...569A..91K)
  • 14 cubes from PINGS: the PPAK IFS Nearby Galaxies Survey (Rosales-Ortega, F. F. et al. 2010MNRAS.405..735R)

Spectra

  • 727 spectra from 2MTF III. HI 21 cm observations of 1194 spiral galaxies with the Green Bank Telescope (Masters et al. 2014MNRAS.443.1044M)
  • 654 spectra from Uncertainties in 21 centimeter redshifts. I - Data (Tifft, W. G. and Cocke, W. J. 1988ApJS...67....1T)
  • 551 spectra from A southern sky survey of the peculiar velocities of 1355 spiral galaxies (Mathewson et al. 1992ApJS...81..413M)
  • 314 spectra from A study of the large-scale structure in the distribution of galaxies centered about the Cancer cluster. I. II. (Bicay et al. 1986AJ.....91..705B)
  • 269 spectra from H I 21 centimeter observations and I-band photometry of spiral galaxies behind the Virgo Cluster and toward its antipode (Lu et al. 1993ApJS...88..383L)
  • Plus 2,160 spectra from 28 publications.

Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

Database Contents

The following table gives NED's current total holdings:

    Data Type Total
    Unprocessed Sources 515,235,015
    Distinct Objects 214,734,542
    Multiwavelength Cross-IDs 255,139,776
    Object Associations 1,413,595
    References 95,586
    Publication Abstracts 70,623
    Object Links to References 32,408,074
    Photometric Data Points 1,969,546,956
    Diameters 608,833,152
    Objects with Redshifts 5,198,941
    Redshift-Independent Distances 83,878
    Objects with Redshift-Independent Distances17,020
    Objects with Detailed Classifications229,792
    Detailed Object Notes 75,221
    Images 2,614,277
    Spectra 559,183


New User Interface and New Approach for Data Integration

New User Interface

The NED user interface has begun a transition to a new, more modern style. This new interface may be previewed here. Drop down menus may be used to quickly access searches for objects, data, or literature. Clicking one of these options will lead to the classic, familiar search forms for services that have not yet adopted the new style. Searches By (or Near) Object Name, Near Position, and by RefCode (Reference Code) may be typed directly into a prominently featured smart box. The following search forms are available in the new style:

New Approach for Data Integration

NED has implemented a new methodology for integrating data from both very large catalogs (VLCs) containing hundreds of millions of sources, and smaller datasets from the literature. There is a new user interface to Search Objects and Unprocessed Catalog Sources, with an option to include incoming catalog sources that have not yet been cross-identified and had their key parameters fused with other information in NED.

The current release provides access to 471 million catalog sources from the 2MASS Point Source Catalog (2MASS PSC), 42 million catalog sources from the Spitzer Source List (SSTSL2), and 1.6 million catalog sources from the WIde-field nearby Galaxy-cluster survey (WINGS). Over 62 million catalog sources from the GALEX All Sky Survey Catalog (GASC) and the GALEX Medium Imaging Survey Catalog (GMSC) have already been cross-identified with NED objects or promoted to new NED objects.

In the past, cross-identifications between incoming catalog sources and objects in NED were integrated incrementally over many months as the results from cross-matching software were vetted and loaded into the database in chunks spanning across multiple NED updates. This had the disadvantage that only a fraction of catalog sources were accessible in NED until the catalogs were fully processed, and it was not clear exactly what subsets were in NED at any given time. In the new approach, selected parameters (columns) for all catalog sources (rows) are rapidly loaded into a new Catalog Source Representation layer of the database and made available for optional inclusion in search results along with the fully integrated NED objects. A detailed discussion of the ontology of unprocessed catalog sources (Status=S) versus NED objects (Status=O) may be found here.


November 2014 - December 2014 Revisions

Additions to Sources (Staged for Cross-matching)

References and Object Pointers

  • 336 new references
  • 119,520 new object links (pointers) to references

Redshift-Independent Distances

Images

  • 611 images from An Atlas of Ha images taken at the Las Campanas and Palomar Observatories (Gil de Paz, A. and Madore, B. F. 2011PrivC.U..G....D)

Spectra

  • 152 spectra from 2MTF - II. New Parkes 21-cm observations of 303 southern galaxies (Hong, Tao et al. 2013MNRAS.432.1178H)
  • 146 spectra from Optical Spectroscopic Atlas of the MOJAVE/2cm AGN Sample (Torrealba, J. et al. 2012RMxAA..48....9T)
  • 12 spectra from Neutral hydrogen in bright galaxies with strong radio sources (Mirabel, I. F. 1982ApJ...260...75M)
  • 21 spectra from An optical and H I study of late-type low surface brightness galaxies (Longmore, A. J. et al. 1982MNRAS.200..325L)
  • 10 spectra from Selected H I observations of double galaxies (Peterson, S. D. and Terzian, Y 1979JRASC..73..215P)

Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

Database Contents

The following table gives NED's current total holdings:

    Data Type Total
    Sources from Very Large Catalogs 514,652,774
    Distinct Objects with Cross-IDs 214,695,830
    Multiwavelength Cross-IDs 254,681,848
    Object Associations 1,413,595
    References 93,904
    Publication Abstracts 68,941
    Object Links to References 31,966,354
    Photometric Data Points 1,969,546,956
    Diameters 608,833,152
    Objects with Redshifts 5,178,967
    Redshift-Independent Distances 77,508
    Objects with Redshift-Independent Distances16,376
    Objects with Detailed Classifications229,792
    Detailed Object Notes 75,221
    Images 2,612,666
    Spectra 554,521


Septemeber 2014 - November 2014 Revisions

Additions to Sources

  • 1,570,040 Infrared Sources from WINGS: a WIde-field nearby Galaxy-cluster survey. III. Deep near-infrared photometry of 28 nearby clusters (Valentinuzzi, T. et al. 2009A&A...501..851V)

Images

  • 2549 images from An Atlas of Galaxy Spectral Energy Distributions from the Ultraviolet to the Mid-infrared (Brown, M. et al. 2014ApJS..212...18B)

Spectra

  • 137 spectra from Optical Spectroscopic Atlas of the MOJAVE/2cm AGN Sample (Torrealba, J. et al. 2012RMxAA..48....9T)


August 2014 - September 2014 Revisions

Additions to Objects and Basic Data

  • 13,878,421 new Cross-IDs and 8,365,313 new Objects with NUV and FUV Photometry for 22,243,735 UV Sources from The GALEX Medium-Deep Sky Catalog (Seibert, M. 2012GMSC..C...0000S)

Redshift-Independent Distances

User Interface Enhancements


April 2014 - August 2014 Revisions

Additions to Objects and Basic Data

  • 111 new Supernovae published through May 2014 (CBAT)
  • 126 new Gamma-ray Bursts discovered through June 2014

Images

  • 200 optical data cubes and 100 V-band images with H-alpha contours from CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey. II. First public data release (Husemann, B. et al. 2013A&A...549A..87H)
  • 1738 images from MOJAVE. X. Parsec-scale Jet Orientation Variations and Superluminal Motion in Active Galactic Nuclei (Lister, M. L. et al. 2013AJ....146..120L)

Spectra

  • 129 spectra from An Atlas of Galaxy Spectral Energy Distributions from the Ultraviolet to the Mid-infrared (Brown et al. 2014ApJS..212...18B)
  • 30 spectra from High-resolution, high signal-to-noise, global H I spectra of southern, extreme late-type spiral galaxies (Mathews et al. 1998AJ....116.1169M)
  • 29 spectra from H I observations of southern extreme late-type galaxies. II. Small angular size galaxies and galaxies near the galactic plane (Mathews et al. 1995AJ....110..581M)
  • 64 spectra from H I observations of southern extreme late-type galaxies. I. An optically faint sample (Gallagher et al. 1995AJ....109.2003G)
  • 34 spectra from Spiral galaxies in clusters. II - Neutral hydrogen observations in Cancer, Hercules /A 2151/, and Pegasus I (Schommer et al. 1981AJ.....86..943S)
  • 18 spectra from A neutral hydrogen study of early-type galaxies in and near the Virgo cluster (Krumm, N. and Salpeter, E. 1979ApJ...227..776K)

NOTE: If you would like to have your FITS image or spectral data become available for use by other researchers via NED, please leave a comment with your name and email address so that we may contact you.

Review Articles in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology

New User Interface and New Approach for Data Integration

New User Interface

The NED user interface has begun a transition to a new, more modern style. This new interface may be previewed here. Drop down menus may be used to quickly access searches for objects, data, or literature. Clicking one of these options will lead to the classic, familiar search forms for services that have not yet adopted the new style. The most popular By Name search may be typed directly into a prominently featured query box. Search Objects, With Unprocessed Catalog Sources leads to a new-style interface which gives information on objects in NED and sources from very large catalogs (VLCs) that NED knows about but have not yet been fully integrated into NED (see below). Source Nomenclature leads to a new-style service for looking up source acronyms.

New Approach for Very Large Catalogs

NED has implemented a new methodology for integrating data from very large catalogs (VLCs) containing hundreds of millions of sources. There is a new user interface to Search Objects, With Unprocessed Catalog Sources, with an option to include incoming catalog sources that have not yet been cross-identified and had their key parameters fused with other information in NED. The current release provides access to 471 million catalog sources from the 2MASS Point Source Catalog (2MASS PSC), 42 million catalog sources from the Spitzer Source List (SSTSL2), and 1.6 million catalog sources from the WIde-field nearby Galaxy-cluster survey (WINGS). Over 62 million catalog sources from the GALEX All Sky Survey Catalog (GASC) and the GALEX Medium Imaging Survey Catalog (GMSC) have already been cross-identified with NED objects or promoted to new NED objects.

In the past, cross-identifications between incoming catalog sources and objects in NED were integrated incrementally over many months as the results from cross-matching software were vetted and loaded into the database in chunks spanning across multiple NED updates. This had the disadvantage that only a fraction of catalog sources were accessible in NED until the catalogs were fully processed, and it was not clear exactly what subsets were in NED at any given time. In the new approach, selected parameters (columns) for all catalog sources (rows) in a VLC are rapidly loaded into a new Catalog Source Representation layer of the database and made available for optional inclusion in search results along with the fully integrated NED objects. A detailed discussion of the ontology of unprocessed catalog sources (Status=S) versus NED objects (Status=O) may be found here.


April 2014 - May 2014 Revisions

Database Contents

The following table gives NED's current total holdings:

    Data Type Total
    Sources from Very Large Catalogs 493,236,705
    Distinct Objects with Cross-IDs 206,318,572
    Multiwavelength Cross-IDs 232,414,197
    Object Associations 1,413,595
    References 91,600
    Publication Abstracts 66,641
    Object Links to References 30,592,951
    Photometric Data Points 1,891,559,219
    Diameters 608,833,152
    Objects with Redshifts 5,178,966
    Redshift-Independent Distances 72,219
    Objects with Redshift-Independent Distances15,876
    Objects with Detailed Classifications229,792
    Detailed Object Notes 73,732
    Images 2,608,840
    Spectra 553,829

Highlights of Latest Additions to Photometry

  • Radio : 1285 sources with GMRT 325 MHz fluxes from 325-MHz observations of the ELAIS-N1 field using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (Sirothia, S. K. et al. 2009MNRAS.395..269S)
  • UV, Visual and NIR : 4629 sources with HST magnitudes from The Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey with Hubble: An Overview (Postman, Marc et al. 2012ApJS..199...25P)
  • FUV and NUV : 6953 sources GALEX magnitudes from UV to Far-IR Catalog of a Galaxy Sample in Nearby Clusters: Spectral Energy Distributions and Environmental Trends (Hernandez-Fernandez, Jonathan D. et al. 2012ApJS..199...22H)
  • X-ray : 1873 sources with Fermi 0.1-100 GeV fluxes from Fermi Large Area Telescope Second Source Catalog (Nolan, P.L. et al 2012ApJS..199...31N)

Latest Images

  • 65 images from A Survey of Local Group Galaxies Currently Forming Stars. I. UBVRI Photometry of Stars in M31 and M33 (Massey, P. et al. 2006AJ....131.2478M
  • 30 images from A Survey of Local Group Galaxies Currently Forming Stars. II. UBVRI Photometry of Stars in Seven Dwarfs and a Comparison of the Entire Sample (Massey, P. et al. 2007AJ....133.2393M)
  • 57 images from A Survey of Local Group Galaxies Currently Forming Stars. III. A Search for Luminous Blue Variables and Other H{alpha} Emission-Line Stars (Massey, P. et al. 2007AJ....134.2474M)
  • 52 images from A Deep K-Band Photometric Survey of Merger Remnants (B. Rothberg and R. D. Joseph 2004AJ....128.2098R)
  • 4704 images from The Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S^4^ G) (Sheth, K. et al. 2010PASP..122.1397S)

Latest Spectra

  • 88 spectra from 21 Centimeter Survey of Luminous Infrared Galaxies (Mirabel, I. F. and Sanders, D. B. 1988ApJ...335..104M)
  • 46 spectra from Comparison of AGN and Nuclear Starburst Activity in Seyfert 1 and 2 Galaxies over a Wide Luminosity Range Based on Near-Infrared 2-4 micron Spectroscopy (Oi, N. et al. 2010PASJ...62.1509O)
  • 16 spectra from PINGS: the PPAK IFS Nearby Galaxies Survey (Rosales-Ortega, F. F. et al. 2010MNRAS.405..735R)

NOTE: If you would like to have your FITS image or spectral data become available for use by other researchers via NED, please leave a comment with your name and email address so that we may contact you.

Latest Review Papers in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


October 2013 - March 2014 Revisions

New User Interface

The NED user interface has begun a transition to a new, more modern style. This new interface may be previewed here. Drop down menus may be used to quickly access searches for objects, data, or literature. Clicking one of these options will lead to the classic, familiar search forms for services that have not yet adopted the new style. The most popular By Name search may be typed directly into a prominently featured query box. Search Objects, With Unprocessed Catalog Sources leads to a new-style interface which gives information on objects in NED and sources from very large catalogs (VLCs) that NED knows about but have not yet been fully integrated into NED (see below). Source Nomenclature leads to a new-style service for looking up source acronyms.

New Approach for Very Large Catalogs

NED has implemented a new methodology for integrating data from very large catalogs (VLCs) containing tens or hundreds of millions of sources. There is a new user interface to Search Objects, With Unprocessed Catalog Sources, with an option to include incoming catalog sources that have not yet been cross-identified and had their key parameters fused with other information in NED. The current release provides access to 471 million catalog sources from the 2MASS Point Source Catalog (2MASS PSC) and 22 million catalog sources from the GALEX Medium Imaging Survey Catalog (GMSC). Nearly 40 million catalog sources from the GALEX All Sky Survey Catalog (GASC) have already been cross-identified with NED objects or promoted to new NED objects.

In the past, cross-identifications between incoming catalog sources and objects in NED were integrated incrementally over many months as the results from cross-matching software were vetted and loaded into the database in chunks spanning across multiple NED updates. This had the disadvantage that only a fraction of catalog sources were accessible in NED until the catalogs were fully processed, and it was not clear exactly what subsets were in NED at any given time. In the new approach, selected parameters (columns) for all catalog sources (rows) in a VLC are rapidly loaded into a new Catalog Source Representation layer of the database and made available for optional inclusion in search results along with the fully integrated NED objects. A detailed discussion of the ontology of unprocessed catalog sources (Status=S) versus NED objects (Status=O) may be found here.

Explore Galaxy Environments via Radial Velocity Constrained Cone Searches

The new Search By Environment service gives a view of the environments surrounding objects or positions of interest. A list of objects centered on the requested position and having radial velocities within 5000 km/s and projected distances within 10 Mpc is returned, and the locations of these objects are plotted on position-radial velocity diagrams.

Best Practices for Data Publication

The September 2013 Release published on this website a document titled Best Practices for Data Publication to Facilitate Integration into NED: A Reference Guide for Authors (Schmitz, M. et al. 2013). We encourage authors and referees of journal articles presenting extragalactic data and derived results to refer to these Best Practices while preparing and reviewing data sets and manuscripts before publication. We expect this document will evolve based on additional input from the community, and we welcome everyone interested to please submit your comments for future editions.

Queuing for By Parameters Queries

Long-running queries from the Search for Objects By Parameters service are now managed by queue (starting September 2013). The NED Backgrounding with Automated Scheduling and Queuing (NBASQ) system supports these searches and delivers machine-readable output tables staged on the NED server for download when the search is completed. This service facilitates complex, multi-parameter searches that typicaly require more than a few minutes to complete and often result in very large output tables.

Database Contents

The following table gives statistics for data added to NED since the previous public update, followed by the current total holdings:

    Data Type Added Total
    Sources from Very Large Catalogs 532,806,736 493,236,705
    Multiwavelength Cross-IDs 39,846,066 232,414,197
    Unique Objects 29,084,152 206,318,572
    Object Associations 11,192 1,413,595
    References 788 90,211
    Publication Abstracts 772 65,206
    Object Links to References 1,668,471 30,473,593
    Photometric Data Points 145,107,934 1,891,536,140
    Diameters 0 608,833,152
    Objects with Redshifts 983,948 5,178,966
    Redshift-Independent Distances 1,940 71,233
    Objects with Redshift-Independent Distances274 15,768
    Objects with Detailed Classifications0 229,792
    Detailed Object Notes 1,442 73,732
    Images 180 2,603,933
    Spectra 59,621 553,725

Highlights of Latest Additions to Objects and Basic Data

  • Nearly 471,000,000 2MASS PSC Near-IR Sources from The 2-Micron All Sky Survey Point Source Catalog (Skrutskie, M. F. et al. 2006AJ....131.1163S)
  • Nearly 40,000,000 GALEX ASC (GASC) UV Sources from The GALEX All Sky Catalog (Seibert, M. 2012GASC..C...0000S)
  • About 22,000,000 GALEX MSC (GMSC) UV Sources from The GALEX Medium-Deep Sky Catalog (Seibert, M. 2012GMSC..C...0000S)
  • Over 65,000 COMAi galaxies from The HST/ACS Coma Cluster Survey. II. (Hammer, D. et al. 2010ApJS..191..143H)
  • Over 27,000 more MaxBCG clusters from Robust Optical Richness Estimation with Reduced Scatter (Rykoff, E. S. et al. 2012ApJ...746..178R)
  • Over 21,000 more MUSYC objects from The Multiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC) (Cardamone, C. N. et al. 2010ApJS..189..270C)
  • Over 12,000 more candidate QSOs and over 1,163,000 photometric redshifts using the NBCKDE (Nonparametric Bayes Classifier Kernel Density Estimate) method from Efficient Photometric Selection of Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. II. (Richards, G. T. et al. 2009ApJS..180...67R)
  • Over 2,000 more candidate QSOs behind the LMC from A Refined QSO Selection Method Using Diagnostics Tests (Kim, D.-W. et al. 2012ApJ...747..107K)
  • Over 1,300 new parts of galaxies (HII regions, globular clusters, planetary nebulae) from 13 different journal articles
  • Supernovae through October 2013

Highlights of Latest Additions to Photometry

  • VIS and NIR : 4130 sources with HST multiwavelength magnitudes from Active and Passive Galaxies at z ~ 2: Rest-frame Optical Morphologies with WFC3 (Cameron, E. et al. 2011ApJ...743..146)
  • SUBMM : 153 sources with BLAST 250, 350, and 500 GHz fluxes from Submillimetre observations of galaxy clusters with the BLAST: the star formation activity in Abell 3112 (Braglia, F. G. et al. 2011MNRAS.412.1187B)
  • X-ray : 1948 sources with XMM 0.2-4.5 keV fluxs from The deep XMM-Newton Survey of M 31 (Stiele, H. et al. 2011A&A...534A..55S)
  • Radio : 598 sources with GMRT 153 MHz fluxes from Deep low-frequency radio observations of the NOAO Bootes field. I. Data reduction and catalog construction (Intema, H. T. et al 2011A&A...535A..38I)
  • IR : 7284 sources with AKARI 2-24 microns fluxes from The AKARI NEP-Deep survey: a mid-infrared source catalogue (Takagi, T. et al. 2012A&A...537A..24T)
  • UV : Nearly 40,000,000 sources with GALEX NUV and/or FUV fluxes from The GALEX All Sky Survey Catalog (GASC) (Seibert, M. 2012GASC..C...0000S)

Latest Images

  • 180 images from an atlas of CO emission from 18 nearby galaxies from Heracles: The HERA CO Line Extragalactic Survey (Leroy, A. K. et al. 2009AJ....137.4670L)

Latest Spectra

  • 59,615 spectra from Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): survey diagnostics and core data release (Driver, S. P. et al. 2011MNRAS.413..971D)

NOTE: If you would like to have your FITS image or spectral data become available for use by other researchers via NED, please leave a comment with your name and email address so that we may contact you.

Latest Review Papers in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


May 2013 - September 2013 Revisions

Best Practices for Data Publication

In the process of continuously streamlining the integration of data from the literature into NED and at the urging of the NED Users Committee (NUC) chaired by Prof. Michael Strauss (Princeton University), the NED Team has prepared and published on this website a new document titled Best Practices for Data Publication to Facilitate Integration into NED: A Reference Guide for Authors (Schmitz, M. et al. 2013).

This Best Practices document includes a convenient Checklist of recommendations with links to sections of the main document that provide further examples, explanation and rationale. The current version is a revision based on recent vetting and comments provided by the NUC, the AAS Director of Publishing Dr. Chris Biemesderfer, and Journals Scientist Dr. Greg Schwartz. The document is undergoing further review by the Copy Editors and science editors on the AAS Editorial Board. We hope that journal publishers will incorporate links to this document in their Instructions to Authors to provide a practical reference for authors, referees, and science editors so as to help avoid various pitfalls that often impede the interpretation of data and metadata, and also delay their integration into NED, SIMBAD, ADS and other systems.

We encourage authors and referees of journal articles presenting extragalactic data and derived results to refer to these Best Practices while preparing and reviewing data sets and manuscripts before publication. We expect this document will evolve based on additional input from the community, and we welcome everyone interested to please submit your comments for future editions.

New and Improved Functionality

The Search for Objects By Parameters service has the following major upgrades:
  • A new NED Backgrounding with Automated Scheduling and Queuing (NBASQ) system supports long-running database searches with machine-readable output tables staged on the NED server for download when the search is completed. This service facilitates complex, multi-parameter searches that typicaly require more than a few minutes to complete and often result in very large output tables.
  • Since the results are often too large for viewing in HTML format in a web browser, the default output format has been changed to a plain text file with bar-separated values that can be easily parsed with a computer program or read into a spreadsheet program.
  • The search form has been redesigned to fit on a single page when initially (re)loaded. Form sections to input different types of search constraints and output options can be expanded or collapsed as needed.

New Approach for Very Large Catalogs - Beta Version

NED is implementing a new methodology for integrating data from very large catalogs (VLCs) containing tens or hundreds of millions of sources. In the past, cross-identifications between incoming catalog sources and objects in NED were integrated incrementally over many months as the results from cross-matching software were vetted and loaded into the database in chunks spanning across multiple NED updates. This had the disadvantage that only a fraction of sources were accessible in NED until the catalogs were fully processed, and it was not clear exactly what subsets were in NED at any given time.

In the new approach, selected parameters (columns) for all sources (rows) in a VLC are rapidly loaded into a new "Source Representation" layer of the database and made available for optional inclusion in search results along with the fully integrated NED objects. The initial release will provide access to 40 million sources from the GALEX All-Sky Survey Source Catalog (GASC) and 22 million sources from the GALEX Medium Imaging Survey Catalog (GMSC).

There will be a new user interface to query NED By Position ("cone search") with an option to include incoming catalog sources which have not yet been cross-identified and had their key parameters fused with other information in NED. If you are interested in beta testing NED's new approach for handling VLCs and providing us with your feedback, please contact the NED team.

Database Contents

The following table gives statistics for data added to NED since the previous public update, followed by the current total holdings:

    Data Type Added Total
    Unique Objects 62,606 177,234,420
    Publication Abstracts 1,795 64,434
    References 2,319 89,423
    Object Links to References 1,241,586 28,805,122
    Multiwavelength Cross-IDs 427,539 192,568,131
    Object Associations 1,612 1,402,403
    Photometric Data Points 390,249 1,746,428,206
    Objects with Redshifts 40,451 4,195,018
    Redshift-Independent Distances 4,889 69,293
    Objects with Redshift-Independent Distances2,08715,494
    Objects with Detailed Classifications13,780 229,792
    Images 1,838 2,727,103
    Spectra 15,897 494,104
    Detailed Object Notes 153 72,290

Highlights of Latest Additions to Objects and Basic Data

  • Over 114,000 GAMA sources from Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): survey diagnostics and core data release (Driver, S. P. et al. 2011MNRAS.413..971D)
  • Over 54,000 AMIGA sources around KIG galaxies from The AMIGA sample of isolated galaxies. IV. A catalogue of neighbours around isolated galaxies (Verley, S. et al. 2007A&A...470..505V)
  • Over 17,000 radio sources in SDSS from High-resolution Very Large Array Imaging of Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 at 1.4 GHz (Hodge, J. A. et al. 2011AJ....142....3H)
  • About 16,000 AGC sources from The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey: The {alpha}.40 H I Source Catalog, Its Characteristics and Their Impact on the Derivation of the H I Mass Function (Haynes, M. P. et al. 2011AJ....142..170H)
  • Over 13,000 AGNs in the Extended-Chandra Deep Field-South and Extended Groth Strip from Supermassive Black Hole Growth in Starburst Galaxies over Cosmic Time: Constraints from the Deepest Chandra Fields (Rafferty, D. A. et al. 2011ApJ...742....3R)
  • About 8,000 sources from The Hubble Space Telescope GOODS NICMOS Survey: overview and the evolution of massive galaxies at 1.5< z< 3 (Conselice, C. J. et al. 2011MNRAS.413...80C)
  • Over 4,000 CLASH sources from The Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey with Hubble: An Overview (Postman, M. et al. 2012ApJS..199...25P)
  • Supernovae through July 2013 from IAU Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBATs)
  • GRBs through April 2013 from Swift GRB lists

Highlights of Latest Additions to Photometry

  • X-ray: 17,207 sources with Chandra 0.3-8 keV fluxes from Chandra ACIS Survey of X-ray Point Sources in 383 Nearby Galaxies. I. The Source Catalog (Liu, J. 2011ApJS..192...10L)
  • UV: 62,522 sources with 1700 A fluxes from A strong redshift dependence of the broad absorption line quasar fraction (Allen, J. T. et al. 2011MNRAS.410..860A)
  • Visual: 71,604 sources with LCO B, R magnitudes from Probing the IGM/Galaxy Connection. IV. The LCO/WFCCD Galaxy Survey of 20 Fields Surrounding UV-bright Quasars (Prochaska, J. X. et al. 2011ApJS..193...28P)
  • NIR: 8,865 sources with UKIDSS YJHK magnitudes from SPIDER - I. Sample and galaxy parameters in the grizYJHK wavebands (La Barbera, F. et al. 2010MNRAS.408.1313L)
  • Sub-mm: 37 sources with fluxes from A LABOCA survey of submillimeter galaxies behind galaxy clusters (Johansson, D. 2011A&A...527A.117J)
  • Radio: 1,623 sources with VLA 1.4 GHz fluxes from Variable and Transient Radio Sources in the FIRST Survey (Thyagarajan, N. et al. 2011ApJ...742...49T)

Highlights of Latest Additions to Classifications

  • 1,080 unique attributes applied to 4,800 NGC and IC galaxies from Notes in the Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC1) (de Vaucouleurs, G. & de Vaucouleurs, A. 1964RC1...C...0000d)
  • 14,034 visually determined Hubble Types for SDSS galaxies from A Catalog of Detailed Visual Morphological Classifications for 14,034 Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (Nair, P. B. & Abraham, R. G. 2010ApJS..186..427N)
  • 68,234 types of direct distances in Attributes have been synchronized with NED-D

Latest Images

  • 229 integrated H I, velocity field, velocity dispersion, and individual channel maps from THINGS: The H I Nearby Galaxy Survey (Walter, F. et al. 2008AJ....136.2563W)
  • 329 channel maps, moment maps, velocity-flux profiles, and surface gas density profiles from Little Things (Hunter, D. A. et al. 2012AJ....144..134H)
  • 1278 Herschel SPIRE and PACS images from KINGFISH -- Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: A Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel: Survey Description and Image Atlas (Kennicutt, R. C. et al. 2011PASP..123.1347K)

Latest Spectra

  • 15,855 spectra from The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey: The {alpha}.40 H I Source Catalog, Its Characteristics and Their Impact on the Derivation of the H I Mass Function (Haynes, M. P. et al. 2011AJ....142..170H)
  • 16 spectra from PINGS: the PPAK IFS Nearby Galaxies Survey (Rosales-Ortega, F. F. et al. 2010MNRAS.405..735R)
  • 8 spectra from Twenty-one centimeter line widths of galaxies (Roberts, M. S. 1978AJ.....83.1026R)
  • 3 spectra from Detection of a long H I plume emerging from NGC 3628 (Rots, A. H. 1978AJ.....83..219R)
  • 6 spectra from The giant spiral galaxy M 101. III - Integral properties of several companion galaxies (Allen, R. J. et al. 1978A&A....64..359A)
  • 4 spectra from Observations of neutral hydrogen in early-type galaxies (Bieging, J. H. 1978A&A....64...23B)
  • 2 spectra from The H I content of the elliptical galaxies NGC 3904 and 4636 (Bottinelli, L. & Gouguenheim, L. 1977A&A....60L..23B)
  • 1 spectrum from A neutral hydrogen study of the spiral galaxy NGC 4736 (Bosma, A. et al. 1977A&A....57..373B)
  • 1 spectrum from A 21-cm study of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 (Bosma, A. et al. 1977A&A....57...97B)
  • 8 spectra from H I in early-type galaxies. III. Observations of S0 galaxies (Balick, B. et al. 1976ApJ...209..710B)
  • 9 spectra from H I in early-type galaxies. I - Observations (Gallagher, J. S. et al. 1975ApJ...202....7G)

NOTE: If you would like to have your FITS image or spectral data become available for use by other researchers via NED, please leave a comment with your name and email address so that we may contact you.

Latest Review Papers in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


January 2013 - April 2013 Revisions

New and Improved Functionality

  • Foreground Galactic extinction values (Aλ [mag]) based on Schlafly et al. 2011 are now computed using the latest version of the Schlegel et al. 1998 dust maps and code available at http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~schlegel/dust/.
  • New capability to return foreground Galactic extinction values (Aλ [mag]) from Schlafly et al. 2011 in up to 88 photometric bands in the Customized Output feature of the Build Data Table from Input List tools (By Name and Near Name/Position), and in the By Classifications query form.
  • Corrections were made to the logic for By Parameters (All-Sky) searches. These bug fixes improve searches involving constraints on multiple object types and searches excluding particular name prefixes.
  • The results of Photometric Data searches have been revised such that when Fν in Jansky [Jy] or [W m-2 Hz-1] units are selected for homogenized flux density values derived by NED, these only apply to broad-band photometric measurements; homogenized spectral line measurements are now given in their proper integrated flux units of [Jy Hz] or [W m-2].
  • Notice of Discontinuing Services: Server Mode (nedsrv) soon to be replaced with web services.

Database Contents

The following table gives statistics for data added to NED since the previous public update and total NED holdings:

    Data Type Added Total
    Unique Objects 310,514 177,171,814
    Publication Abstracts 1,401 62,639
    References 3,167 87,104
    Object Links to References 1,672,995 27,563,536
    Multiwavelength Cross-IDs 1,708,218 192,140,592
    Object Associations 1,766 1,400,791
    Photometric Data Points 77,594 1,746,037,957
    Objects with Redshifts 133,971 4,154,567
    Redshift-Independent Distances 225 64,404
    Objects with Redshift-Independent Distances013,407
    Objects with Detailed Classifications6,750 216,012
    Images 27,071 2,725,265
    Spectra 317 478,207
    Detailed Object Notes 522 72,137

Highlights of Latest Additions to Objects and Basic Data

Highlights of Latest Additions to Photometry

Latest Images

  • 26,748 images in the u, g, r, i, and z bands for a sample of 4458 PGC galaxies from the EFIGI catalogue. Baillard et al. 2011A&A...532A..74B
  • 122 images from an H I/Optical Atlas of Isolated Galaxies. D. J. Pisano, Eric M. Wilcots and Charles T. Liu. 2002ApJS..142..161P

Latest Spectra

  • 192 spectra from GHASP: an H-alpha kinematic survey of 203 spiral and irregular galaxies - VII. Epinat et al. 2008MNRAS.390..466E
  • 44 spectra from Comparison of AGN and Nuclear Starburst Activity in Seyfert 1 and 2 Galaxies Based on Near-Infrared 2-4 micron Spectroscopy. Oi et al. 2010PASJ...62.1509O
  • 45 spectra from An H I study of Scd galaxies. Shostak, G. 1975ApJ...198..527S
  • 36 spectra from Observations of Neutral Hydrogen in Bright Southern Galaxies. Whiteoak, J. B., and Gardner, F. F. 1977AuJPh..30..187W

NOTE: If you would like to have your FITS image or spectral data become available for use by other researchers via NED, please leave a comment with your name and email address so that we may contact you.

Latest Review Papers in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


October 2012 - December 2012 Revisions

Notice of Discontinuing Services: Server Mode (nedsrv) soon to be replaced with web services.

Database Contents

The following table gives statistics for data added to NED since the previous public update and total NED holdings:

    Data Type Added Total
    Unique Objects 8,184 176,861,300
    Publication Abstracts 676 61,238
    References 348 83,937
    Object Links to References 39,765 25,890,541
    Multiwavelength Cross-IDs 51,504 190,432,374
    Object Associations -8 1,399,025
    Photometric Data Points 22,013,9071,745,960,363
    Objects with Redshifts 893 4,020,596
    Redshift-Independent Distances 20,878 64,179
    Objects with Redshift-Independent Distances2,88813,407
    Objects with Detailed Classifications1123 209,262
    Images 733 2,698,194
    Spectra 110 477,890
    Detailed Object Notes 913 71,615

Highlights of Latest Additions to Objects and Basic Data

Highlights of Latest Additions to Photometry

Latest Images

  • 610 images from MIPS 24-160 micron photometry for the Herschel-SPIRE Local Galaxies Guaranteed Time Programs. Bendo, G. J.; Galliano, F.; Madden, S. C. 2012MNRAS.423..197B
  • 123 images in U,B,V,R,I,Ha,J,H,K bands from Stellar Disks of Collisional Ring Galaxies. Romano, R.; Mayya, Y. D.; Vorobyov, E. I. 2008AJ....136.1259R

Latest Spectra

  • 110 spectra from H I bright Galaxies in the Southern Zone of Avoidance. Henning et al. 2000AJ....119.2686H

NOTE: If you would like to have your FITS image or spectral data become available for use by other researchers via NED, please leave a comment with your name and email address so that we may contact you.

Latest Review Papers in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


June-September 2012 Revisions

Notice of Discontinuing Services: Server Mode (nedsrv) to be replaced in 2012 with web services.

SDSS Photometry Updated

The SDSS DR6 asinh magnitudes and SDSS DR5 and DR6 fluxes and uncertainties computed by NED have been updated, as described here. This corrects several issues, including incorrect zero-flux magnitudes and negative flux uncertainties for faint sources.

Database Contents

The following table gives statistics for data added to NED since the previous public update and total NED holdings:

    Data Type Added Total
    Unique Objects 6,361,884176.9 million
    Publication Abstracts 2,328 60,562
    References 2,341 83,589
    Object Links to References 15,100,107 25.9 million
    Multiwavelength Cross-IDs 8,144,260190.4 million
    Object Associations 484 1,399,033
    Photometric Data Points 372,441 1.72 billion
    Objects with Redshifts 25,053 4.02 million
    Redshift-Independent Distances 0 43,301
    Objects with Redshift-Independent Distances 0 10,519
    Images 1 2,697,461
    Spectra 11,650 477,780
    Detailed Object Notes 1,192 70,702

Highlights of Latest Additions to Objects and Basic Data

Highlights of Latest Additions to Photometry

Latest Images

Latest Spectra

Latest Review Papers in LEVEL 5 Knowledgebase for Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology


May 2012 Revisions

Interface Enhancements


January-April 2012 Revisions

Interface Enhancements

Known Issues

  • The flux densities computed by NED from the SDSS asinh magnitudes are incorrect at magnitudes within 2.5 mag of the sky noise limit due to a bug in the application of the softening parameters (all 5 bands). In addition, the zero-point magnitude corrections were incorrectly applied in the derived flux densities computed by NED from the SDSS u and z band magnitudes. The flux densities (and uncertainties) are being recomputed and are scheduled to appear in the next NED release (June 2012). In the mean time, the recommended fix is for users to recalculate the SDSS fluxes from the asinh magnitudes as explained here.

Database Contents

The following data have been added to NED since the previous public update:
  • 1,009,472 Unique Objects (total: 170.5 million unique objects)
  • 1,294,165 Objects Linked to 858 References (total: 10.8 million objects linked to 81,248 references)
  • 1,660,624 Multiwavelength Cross-Identifications between Objects (total: 182.2 million cross-IDs)
  • 494,744 Photometric Measurements (total: 1.72 billion photometric measurements)
  • Redshifts for 242,201 Objects (total: 3.99 million objects with at least one redshift measurement)
  • 1,143 detailed Object Notes (total: 69,510 notes)
  • 342,084 Object Associations (total: 1,398,549 associations)
  • 127,114 Spectra (total: 465,717 spectra)
  • 849 Publication Abstracts (total: 58,234 abstracts)

Highlights include:

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

Highlights of Recent Additions to Photometry

Latest Spectra in NED


September-December 2011 Revisions

Interface Enhancements

Known Issues

  • The flux densities computed by NED from the SDSS asinh magnitudes are incorrect at magnitudes within 2.5 mag of the sky noise limit due to a bug in the application of the softening parameters (all 5 bands). In addition, the zero-point magnitude corrections were incorrectly applied in the derived flux densities computed by NED from the SDSS u and z band magnitudes. The SDSS asinh magnitudes themselves are correct in NED. The flux densities (and uncertainties) are being recomputed and are scheduled to appear in the next NED release (March 2012). In the mean time, the recommended fix is for users to recalculate the SDSS fluxes from the asinh magnitudes as explained here.

Database Contents

The following data have been added to NED since the previous public update:
  • 1,934,583 Unique Objects (total: 169.5 million unique objects)
  • 697,763 Objects Linked to 502 References (total: 9.46 million objects linked to 80,390 references)
  • 2,929,376 Multiwavelength Cross-Identifications between Objects (total: 180.6 million cross-IDs)
  • 62,766 Photometric Measurements (total: 1.72 billion photometric measurements)
  • Redshifts for 242,201 Objects (total: 3.5 million objects with at least one redshift measurement)
  • 8,248 Redshift-Independent Distances for 1,374 objects (total: 43,301 redshift-independent distances for 10,519 objects)
  • 1,017 detailed Object Notes (total: 68,367 notes)
  • 12,929 Object Associations (total: 1,056,465 associations)
  • 2,409 Images (total: 2,697,664 images)
  • 501 Publication Abstracts (total: 57,385 abstracts)

Highlights include:

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

Highlights of Recent Additions to Photometry

Latest Images in NED

  • 2416 MOJAVE 15-GHz Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) images of a complete flux-density-limited sample of 135 AGNs above declination -20 deg, spanning the period 1994 August to 2007 September from Lister et al. 2009AJ....137.3718L

April-August 2011 Revisions

Interface Enhancements

Database Contents

The following data have been added to NED since the previous public update:
  • 2,869,332 Unique Objects (total: 167.5 million unique objects)
  • 2,131,821 Objects Linked to 1,381 References (total: 8.76 million objects linked to 79,888 References)
  • 4,360,178 Multi-Wavelength Cross-Identifications between Objects (total: 177.6 million cross-IDs)
  • 23,561 Photometric Measurements (total: 1.72 billion Photometric Measurements)
  • Redshifts for 1,286,619 Objects (total: 3.26 million objects with at least one Redshift Measurement)
  • 467 detailed Object Notes (total: 67,350 notes)
  • 37,472 Object Associations (total: 1,043,536 Associations)
  • 726 Images (total: 2,571,905 Images)
  • 47,559 Spectra (total: 339,023 Spectra)
  • 1,371 Publication Abstracts (total: 56,884 abstracts)

Highlights include:

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

Highlights of Recent Additions to Photometry

Latest Images in NED

Latest Spectra in NED


December 2010-April 2011 Revisions

Interface Enhancements

Database Contents

The following data have been added to NED since the previous public update:
  • 1,147,868 Unique Objects (total: 164.7 million unique objects)
  • 522,157 Objects Linked to 1,937 References (total: 6.63 million objects linked to 78,507 References)
  • 1,882,281 Multiwavelength Cross-Identifications between Objects (total: 173.3 million cross-IDs)
  • 303,150 Photometric Measurements (total: 1.72 billion Photometric Measurements)
  • Redshifts for 104,489 Objects (total: 1.97 million objects with at least one Redshift Measurement)
  • 177 detailed Object Notes (total: 66,883 notes)
  • 349,592 Object Associations (total: 1,006,064 Associations)
  • 1,918 Publication Abstracts (total: 55,513 abstracts)

Highlights include:

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

Highlights of Recent Additions to Photometry

Latest Images in NED


September - December 2010 Revisions

  • User-Customized Data Tables By Name, Near Name/Position, or By Classifications. A user-specified list of output data fields can now be selected for up to 500 input source names or positions. Users may select a search radius up to 30 arcseconds; bar-, tab-, or space-delimited files; and output in plain text or HTML. Among the output fields that may be chosen are:
    • NED's preferred object names, positions (RA/Dec, l/b), and position reference code
    • Basic Data, including preferred object type, essential notes, radial velocity and/or redshift, redshift quality, redshift reference code, and quick look magnitude
    • Data counts and links for cross references, notes, photometry, positions, redshifts, diameters, associations, images, spectra, and classifications
    • Galaxy morphology, activity type, hierarchy, kinematics, luminosity class, radio morphology, and distance indicator
    • Photometry from ROSAT, SDSS, RC3, APM, 2MASS, IRAS, NVSS, FIRST, and SUMSS
    • Diameters from SDSS, RC3, SDSS, and ESO-LV
    The output data may be as-published, NED homogenized, or both. The "flat" table output joins data from many different NED DBMS relations and makes possible vastly simplified data analyses. More options will be added in future releases.
  • Quick-look Photometry and Luminosities. The search results page now provides quick-look photometry, with uncertainties, from RC3 or SDSS, 2MASS, IRAS, and NVSS or SUMSS, with other major catalogs planned for future releases. In addition, absolute magnitudes and monochromatic luminosities are computed using redshift-independent distances when available, otherwise using the best available redshift with cosmological corrections. Click here for an example.
  • By Classification searches now include the capability of searching by Distance Indicators, Hierarchy, and Kinematics.
  • Redshift-Independent Distances now includes brief explanations and references to examples for most of the distance determination methods in current use. Over 2,000 new distances are included -- more than 36,000 distances for over 9,000 galaxies are now in NED's distance database -- as is a separate table of 290 distance estimates made before 1930. These "historical" estimates give a unique perspective on the progress our science has made over the past century.

Database Contents

The following data have been added to NED since the previous public update:
  • 328,372 Unique Objects (total: 163.2 million unique objects)
  • 491,032 Objects Linked to 274 References (total: 6.10 million objects linked to 76,570 References)
  • 658,430 Multiwavelength Cross-Identifications between Objects (total: 171.4 million cross-IDs)
  • 33,999 Photometric Measurements (total: 1.72 billion Photometric Measurements)
  • Redshifts for 260,143 Objects (total: 1.87 million objects with at least one Redshift Measurement)
  • 229,734 Detailed Classifications for 108,003 objects (total: 396,548 Detailed Classifications for 208,144 objects)
  • 322 detailed Object Notes (total: 66,706 notes)
  • 2,092 Redshift-Independent Distances for 105 objects (total: 36,411 Redshift-Independent Distances for 9193 objects)
  • 16,216 Object Associations (total: 656,472 Associations)
  • 1,185 Publication Abstracts (total: 53,595 abstracts)

Highlights include:

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

Highlights of Recent Additions to Photometry

Latest Images in NED

Additions to Detailed Galaxy Classifications


May - September 2010 Revisions


March - May 2010 Revisions

NED-D Galaxy Distance Database is now available as a comma-separated-value (CSV) file. See the introduction to the NED-D Metric Distance Compilation for more information on this file.

Database Contents

The following data have been added to NED since the previous public update:
  • 74,233 Unique Objects (total: 163.2 million unique objects)
  • 349,588 Objects Linked to 1,971 References (total: 5.61 million objects linked to 75,372 References)
  • 206,136 Multiwavelength Cross-Identifications between Objects (total: 170.7 million cross-IDs)
  • 97,014 Photometric Measurements (total: 1.72 billion Photometric Measurements)
  • Redshifts for 20,949 Objects (total: 1.61 million objects with at least one Redshift Measurement)
  • 16,274 Detailed Classifications for 10,144 objects (total: 166,814 Detailed Classifications for 134,461 objects)
  • 1,270 detailed Object Notes (total: 66,384 notes)
  • 860 Redshift-Independent Distances for 153 objects (total: 34,319 Redshift-Independent Distances for 9088 objects)
  • 811 Object Associations resolved (total: 640,256 Associations)
  • 797 Spectra (total: 291 thousand Spectra)
  • 1,961 Publication Abstracts (total: 52,410 abstracts)

Highlights include:

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

Highlights of Recent Additions to Photometry

Latest Spectra in NED

Additions to Detailed Galaxy Classifications

Updates to Classifications Interface

A number of new features have been added to the result pages of the Search Classifications by Object Name service. Here is an example.
  • A pre-cutout image from the first Digital Sky Survey is shown near the top of the result page for some objects. It also links to the image search results page of the target object. This service is preliminary and currently does not have full coverage of all objects with classifications. This issue will be addressed in the next release.
  • An information link for retrieving classification descriptions and other details can be found preceding each of the NED Homogenized Classifications, for example:  i  LC IV. These are also found on the Search for Objects by Classifications Form.
  • You can now trigger a search for objects by selecting a combination of classifications found in your target object by using the Find Similar Objects button, located on the far right column of the results table.
By clicking on the  i  icon-link as in:  i  LC IV, you can retrieve the following information for the NED Homogenized Classification:
  • Description of the classification
  • Notes associated with the classification (when applicable). These may contain links to the reference code which defines the classification.
  • The number of data entries and unique objects with that particular type of classification along with a link to retrieve the list of objects
  • List of Reference Codes currently in NED that carry the particular type of classification

January - March 2010 Revisions


26 January 2010 Revisions

Highlights of New Content and User Interface Upgrades in the January 2010 (N20.0) Release of NED

Detailed Galaxy Classifications and New Query Functionality

Morphological and spectral classifications listed in the Basic Data section of NED's object query results were intended only to provide a quick overview of the galaxy's properties; therefore, they are unreferenced and cannot be queried. Galaxy classifications and attributes derived from them are now being input into the database with references and detailed metadata such as the observed bandpass and region of interest. Classifications are provided in their originally published form, and standardized versions are also assigned to enable queries that span over all relevant classifications regardless of their origin. Object query reports include a new Classifications section providing fully referenced and qualified classifications when they are available, with links to retrieve more details. In addition, NED is introducing two services related to this new extension of the database:

These services utilize a new database extension to NED that initially contains over 38 thousand galaxy classifications for more than 37 thousand galaxies collated from the following catalogs and journal articles in each of the four categories:

Galaxy classifications and attributes from the astrophysics literature are being added on an ongoing basis to appear in future NED updates.

Database Contents

The following data have been added to NED since the previous public update:
  • 132 thousand objects (total: 163 million unique objects)
  • 288,316 objects linked to 1,804 journal articles and catalogs (total: 5.26 million objects linked to 73,400 journal articles)
  • 489 thousand multiwavelength cross-identifications between objects (total: 170 million cross-IDs)
  • 453 thousand object Associations (total: 641,067)
  • 140 thousand photometric measurements (total: 1.72 billion measurements)
  • Redshifts for 115 thousand objects (total: 1.58 million objects with at least one redshift measurement)
  • 63 thousand images (total: 2.25 million images)
  • 233 thousand spectra (total: 268 thousand spectra)
  • Data integrated from 5,046 new journal articles (total: 73,400 articles)
  • 1788 publication abstracts (total: 50,449 abstracts)
  • 115 detailed object notes (total: 65,071 notes)

Highlights include:

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

Highlights of Recent Additions to Photometry

Latest Images in NED

Latest Spectra in NED


29 May 2009 Additions and Revisions

Highlights of New Content and User Interface Upgrades in the June 2009 (N19.6) Release of NED

User Interface

  • A new capability is provided to Query Redshift-Independent Distances by Object Name. This service utilizes a new database extension to NED that currently contains 18,150 redshift-independent distances for 5,049 galaxies gathered from the literature by the NED-D project.
  • Summary statistics for Redshift-Independent Distances are now included in query reports for objects with the available data. A link is also provided to retrieve the details of the individual distance measurement(s). See for example this By Name query for M 81.
  • Query reports for individual objects with available redshifts now include an embedded form to query a volume of space around the object. This new feature leverages NED's computation of the Hubble distance and scale derived from the redshift to search for physical companions. For example, you can search for objects within +/- 750 kpc and +/- 500 km/s around NGC 2798. The search constraints in kpc (arcminutes) and km/s (redshift) can be changed from the default values.
  • Object search query reports have been improved to provide:
    • Different types of information organized into cleanly separated tables
    • An Index into the various sections of the query results to make it easier to locate different types of information: ESSENTIAL NOTE, CROSS-IDENTIFICATIONS, COORDINATES, REDSHIFT-INDEPENDENT DISTANCES, FOREGROUND GALACTIC EXTINCTION, BASIC DATA, QUANTITIES DERIVED FROM REDSHIFT, and EXTERNAL ARCHIVES AND SERVICES. Each data section includes a link to jump back to the Index.
    • A preview plot showing the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) of the source when sufficient photometric data are available
    • Better organization of links to drill down for detailed information: Images, Photometry/SED, Spectra, Redshift-Independent Distances, References, Positions, Redshifts, and Object Notes.
    See for example this By Name query report for NGC 1365.

Database Contents

Data for 83,067 objects linked to 3242 journal articles and catalogs, redshifts for 50,465 objects, 450 thousand object Associations, and 293,772 photometric measurements have been added to NED since the previous public update. Highlights include:

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

Highlights of Recent Additions to Photometry

Latest Images in NED

Latest Spectra in NED


6 December 2008 Additions and Revisions

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/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.

Return to NED's What's New Page .

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