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.
HEASoft
A Unified Release of the FTOOLS and XANADU Software Packages
The current version of HEASoft is 6.35.2
(25 June 2025)
Included Packages
- XANADU: High-level, multi-mission tasks for X-ray astronomical spectral, timing, and imaging data analysis.
- FTOOLS: General and mission-specific tools to manipulate FITS files.
- FITSIO: Core library responsible for reading and writing FITS files.
- FV: General FITS file browser/editor/plotter with a graphical user interface.
- XSTAR: Tool for calculating the physical conditions and emission spectra of photoionized gases.
Download
Users may download either the source code for the software and compile the tools themselves, or download precompiled executables for the most widely used computer platforms.
The HEASoft Release Notes 6.35.2 give an overview of changes since HEASoft version 6.35[.1].
For a list of known issues in the latest release, visit the HEASoft Known Issues page.
Install
For help installing HEASoft on your system, please visit the appropriate link here:See also the video walkthrough describing the installation process on a Mac.
For guidance regarding removal of HEASoft from your system, visit the
uninstall page.
Mailing List
To receive notices of HEASOFT releases, subscribe to the "FTOOLS Notes" mailing list by sending an e-mail with an empty Subject and "subscribe" in the body to ftoolsnotes-join@lists.nasa.gov
Documentation
Xselect Users' Guide v2.5 | online | tarred HTML | |
Xspec Users' Guide | online | tarred HTML | |
Ximage Users' Guide | online | postscript | tarred HTML |
Xronos Users' Guide | online | postscript | tarred HTML |
HEASoft Developers Guide | Basic developers guide for HEASoft is available online | ||
HEASP Developers Guide | Developers guide for the HEASP Spectral Library is available online. | ||
PIL Developers Guide | Developers guide for the Parameter Interface Library is available online. | ||
Previous Versions: | Table of component version numbers inside the HEASoft package. | ||
Previous Release Notes: |
|
See Also
-
conda:
HEASoft packages installed in conda environments (experimental) -
SciServer:
HEASARC software & data on the SciServer platform -
HEASoft & Docker:
Install HEASoft in a Docker container. -
HEASoftPy:
A Python interface to HEASoft