List of software for astronomy research and education
Listed here are software packages useful for conducting scientific research in astronomy , and for seeing, exploring, and learning about the data used in astronomy.
Package Name
Pro
Am
Interface
Connects to Online
(e.g. VO) Data
Displays
or Manip. FITS Images
Tiled Multi-Resolution All-Sky image Handling
Displays
or Manip.
Spectra
Handles Cubes
(Volumes)
Statistics?
OS
Has API
Cost
Suppt'd
or Sold by
website
Currently Supported?
glue [ 1]
Pro
GUI and command line
Yes
Manipulates
No
Yes
Yes
Basic, plus python terminal
Mac, Win, Linux
Yes
Free
NASA (JWST ), NSF
http://glueviz.org
Yes
WorldWide Telescope [ 2] [ 3]
Pro/Am
GUI
Yes
Displays
TOAST
No
Limited
Limited (histograms)
Browser
Yes
Free
American Astronomical Society (originally by Microsoft)
http://worldwidetelescope.org/webclient
Yes
Google Sky
Am
GUI
Yes
Displays
Mercator
No
No
No
Browser
Yes
Free
Google
https://www.google.com/sky/
No
IRAF [ 3]
Pro
GUI and command line
Yes
Display & Manipulates
No
Yes
Yes
Limited
Mac, Linux
Yes
Free
NOAO
https://iraf-community.github.io
Yes
ds9 [ 3]
Pro
GUI
Yes
Manipulates
No
Yes
Limited
Limited
Mac, Win, Linux
No
Free
NASA
http://ds9.si.edu/site/Home.html
Yes
js9
Pro
GUI
Yes
Manipulates
No
Yes
No
Limited
Browser
No
NASA
https://js9.si.edu
Yes
Aladin
Pro
GUI and command line
Yes
Displays & Manipulates
HiPS
No
Yes
Limited (histograms)
Mac, Win, Linux
yes (java plugins)
Free
CDS
https://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/Desktop
Yes
Aladin Lite
Pro/Am
GUI
Yes
Displays
HiPS
No
No
No
Browser
Yes
Free
CDS
http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/AladinLite/
Yes
ESASky
Pro/Am
GUI
Yes
Displays
HiPS
No
No
No
Browser
No
Free
ESA
http://sky.esa.int
Yes
Starry Night
Am
GUI
No?
No
Yes
No
No
No
Mac, Win
No
$
Simulation Curriculum Corp
http://www.starrynight.com/starry-night-7-professional-astronomy-telescope-control-software.html
Yes
Legacy Survey Sky Browser [ 4]
Pro/Am
GUI
Yes
Displays
Yes
No
No
No
Browser
No
Free
NOAO , AURA
http://legacysurvey.org/viewer
Yes
QFitsView
Pro
GUI and command line
No
Displays & Manipulates
No
Yes
Yes
Limited
Mac, Win, Linux
No
Free
Thomas Ott, MPE
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~ott/dpuser/qfitsview.html
Yes
Gaia Sky [ 5]
Am
GUI and scripts
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Mac, Win, Linux
No
Free
ZAH
https://zah.uni-heidelberg.de/de/institute-des-zah/ari/gaia2/info-material-fuer-die-oeffentlichkeit-downloads/gaiasky/
Yes
FITS Liberator
Pro/Am
GUI
No
Displays & Manipulates
No
No
No
No
Mac, Win
No
Free
ESA , ESO , NASA
https://spacetelescope.org/projects/fits_liberator/
Yes
xTime
Pro
Utility
Yes
No
No
No
No
No
Browser
No
Free
NASA Goddard
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/Tools/xTime/xTime.pl
Yes
wiseview
Pro/Am
GUI
Yes
Displays & Manipulates
No
No
No
No
Browser
No
Free
Dan Caselden and Paul Westin
http://byw.tools/wiseview
Yes
Astropy
Pro
GUI and command line
Yes
Displays & Manipulates
Limited
Yes
Yes
Yes
based on python
Yes
Free
NumFOCUS
https://www.astropy.org/
Yes
Lightkurve [ 6]
Pro
GUI and command line
Yes
Displays & Manipulates
No
No
No
Yes
based on python
Yes
Free
Lightkurve collaboration
https://docs.lightkurve.org/
Yes
Chirp
Pro
Alert Software
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
Browser, Google Play, App Store
No
Free
Aurore Simonnet, EPO Sonoma State University
http://chirp.sr.bham.ac.uk/
Yes
TOPCAT [ 3]
Pro
GUI and command line
Yes
Displays & Manipulates
Limited
Yes
Yes(?)
Yes
Mac, Win, Linux, Solaris
Yes
Free
Developed mostly in the UK
http://www.star.bris.ac.uk/~mbt/topcat/
Yes
Space Engine
Am
GUI
No
No
No
No
No
No
Mac, Win, Linux
No
$
Vladimir Romanyuk
http://spaceengine.org/
Yes
Universe Sandbox
Am
GUI
No
No
No
No
No
No
Mac, Win, Linux
No
$
Dan Dixon
http://universesandbox.com/
Yes
Astrometry.net
Pro/Am
GUI
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
Browser or Mac, Win, Linux
No
Free
NSF , NASA & NRC
https://web.archive.org/web/20101015122353/http://www.astrometry.net/
Yes
MIST
Pro
GUI
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
Browser
No
Free
NSF , NASA & Packard Foundation
http://waps.cfa.harvard.edu/MIST/index.html
Yes
Banyan Σ [ 7]
Pro
GUI
Yes
No
No
No
No
Yes
Browser, IDL code or python code
No
Free
Jonathan Gagné
http://www.exoplanetes.umontreal.ca/banyan/banyansigma.php
Yes
OpenSpace
Am
GUI
No?
No
No
No
No
No?
Mac, Win
No
Free
NASA , Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation , AMNH
https://www.openspaceproject.com/
Yes
iDaVIE [ 8] [ 9]
Pro
VR and GUI
No
Displays
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Win
No
Free
IDIA and UCT
https://idavie.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
https://vislab.idia.ac.za/tools
Yes
Collimation Circles
Pro/Am
GUI
No
No
No
No
No
No
Win, Mac, Linux,
Raspberry PI OS
No
Free
Simon Šander
https://saimons-astronomy.webador.com/software/collimation-circles
Yes
References
^ "glue | Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian" . www.cfa.harvard.edu .
^ "Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope brings Astronomy to Life" . TheWindowsClub News . 19 April 2014.
^ a b c d Czekala, Ian (22 April 2011). "Guide to Astrophysical Software" . astrobites .
^ Wei, Shoulin; Song, Xiang; Zhang, Zhijian; Liang, Bo; Dai, Wei; Lu, Wei; Tao, Junxi (September 2024). "Identifying Mergers in the Legacy Surveys with Few-shot Learning" . The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series . 274 (2): 23. doi :10.3847/1538-4365/ad66ca .
^ Amos, Jonathan (13 June 2022). "Gaia continues quest for the ultimate sky map" . Retrieved 11 January 2025 .
^ Cardoso, José Vinícius de Miranda; Hedges, Christina; Gully-Santiago, Michael; Saunders, Nicholas; Cody, Ann Marie; Barclay, Thomas; Hall, Oliver; Sagear, Sheila; Turtelboom, Emma; Zhang, Johnny; Tzanidakis, Andy; Mighell, Ken; Coughlin, Jeff; Bell, Keaton; Berta-Thompson, Zach; Williams, Peter; Dotson, Jessie; Barentsen, Geert (1 December 2018). "Lightkurve: Kepler and TESS time series analysis in Python" . Astrophysics Source Code Library : ascl:1812.013. Bibcode :2018ascl.soft12013L .
^ Gagné, Jonathan; Mamajek, Eric E.; Malo, Lison; Riedel, Adric; Rodriguez, David; Lafrenière, David; Faherty, Jacqueline K.; Roy-Loubier, Olivier; Pueyo, Laurent; Robin, Annie C.; Doyon, René (20 March 2018). "BANYAN. XI. The BANYAN Σ Multivariate Bayesian Algorithm to Identify Members of Young Associations with 150 pc" . The Astrophysical Journal . 856 (1): 23. arXiv :1801.09051 . doi :10.3847/1538-4357/aaae09 .
^ "PRESS RELEASE: Public release of the iDaVIE Virtual Reality software by the IDIA Vislab – Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy – from big data to big ideas" . 1 October 2024. Retrieved 11 January 2025 .
^ Comrie, Angus; Sivitilli, Alexander; Vitello, Fabio; Jarrett, Thomas; Marchetti, Lucia (17 March 2021). "iDaVIE-v: Immersive Data Visualisation Interactive Explorer for Volumetric Rendering" . Zenodo . Bibcode :2021zndo...4614116C . doi :10.5281/zenodo.4614116 .