To find and download HEASARC data in the cloud, you can use astroquery.heasarc or download our new tool, hark.
The HEASARC and NuSTAR teams are greatly saddened by the sudden passing of Katja Pottschmidt. Most recently Katja was the lead scientist for the NuSTAR Guest Observer Facility (GOF), a role she had supported for many years. During her science career she worked on many other high energy astrophysics missions and played an integral role in advancing our knowledge of the universe. She was a wonderful colleague and friend and will be keenly missed by all who knew her.
FITS Data Format
FITS stands for `Flexible Image Transport System' and is the standard astronomical data format endorsed by both NASA and the IAU. FITS is much more than an image format (such as JPG or GIF) and is primarily designed to store scientific data sets consisting of multi-dimensional arrays (1-D spectra, 2-D images or 3-D data cubes) and 2-dimensional tables containing rows and columns of data. See the overview of the FITS format and the FITS Support Office for more general information about FITS.
HEASARC FITS Resources
- HEASARC FITS conventions - recommended usage for high-energy astrophysics data from the HEASARC FITS Working Group.
- fv - graphical FITS file viewer and editor (FITS images and tables)
- SAOImage ds9 - astronomical visualization application from SAO
- CFITSIO - C and Fortran library for reading and writing FITS files
- Java FITS libraries that provide efficient I/O for FITS images and binary tables.
- FITS Utils - portable set of utility programs to manipulate FITS files
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FTOOLS - large set of programs for analyzing data in FITS format including:
- fverify - verify that a file conforms to the FITS Standard. (A standalone version called fitsverify is also available).
- fcopy - powerful program to selectively copy parts of FITS file to a new file
- ftlist - print the contents of FITS headers, images, and tables
- Sample FITS files produced by the HEASARC
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