Astronomical Surveys
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An astronomical survey is a general map or
image An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be di ...
of a region of the
sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...
(or of the whole sky) that lacks a specific observational target. Alternatively, an astronomical survey may comprise a set of images, spectra, or other observations of objects that share a common type or feature. Surveys are often restricted to one band of the
electromagnetic spectrum The electromagnetic spectrum is the full range of electromagnetic radiation, organized by frequency or wavelength. The spectrum is divided into separate bands, with different names for the electromagnetic waves within each band. From low to high ...
due to instrumental limitations, although multiwavelength surveys can be made by using multiple detectors, each sensitive to a different bandwidth. Surveys have generally been performed as part of the production of an
astronomical catalog An astronomical catalogue is a list or tabulation of astronomical objects, typically grouped together because they share a common type, Galaxy morphological classification, morphology, origin, means of detection, or method of discovery. The olde ...
. They may also search for transient astronomical events. They often use wide-field
astrograph An astrograph (or astrographic camera) is a telescope designed for the sole purpose of astrophotography. Astrographs are mostly used in wide-field astronomical surveys of the sky and for detection of objects such as asteroids, meteors, an ...
s.


Scientific value

Sky surveys, unlike targeted observation of a specific object, allow astronomers to catalog celestial objects and perform statistical analyses on them without complex corrections for selection effects. In some cases, an astronomer interested in a particular object will find that survey images are sufficient to make new telescope time entirely unnecessary. Surveys also help astronomers choose targets for closer study using larger, more powerful telescopes. If previous observations support a hypothesis, a telescope scheduling committee is more likely to approve new, more detailed observations to test it. The wide scope of surveys makes them ideal for finding foreground objects that move, such as asteroids and comets. An astronomer can compare existing survey images to current observations to identify changes; this task can even be performed automatically using
image analysis Image analysis or imagery analysis is the extraction of meaningful information from images; mainly from digital images by means of digital image processing techniques. Image analysis tasks can be as simple as reading barcode, bar coded tags or a ...
software. Besides science, these surveys also detect potentially hazardous objects, providing a service to Spaceguard. For example, the
Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) is a robotic astronomical survey and early warning system optimized for detecting smaller near-Earth objects a few weeks to days before they Impact event, impact Earth. Funded by NASA, an ...
(ATLAS) system surveys the entire night sky every night and, like NEOSTEL, is intended to detect objects as they approach. Broader surveys include the Uppsala–DLR Asteroid Survey and the 20th-century U.K. Schmidt–Caltech Asteroid Survey. Old surveys can be reviewed to find precovery images. Similarly, images of the same object taken by different surveys can be compared to detect transient astronomical events such as variable stars.


List of sky surveys

* Optical **
Hipparchus Hipparchus (; , ;  BC) was a Ancient Greek astronomy, Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equinoxes. Hippar ...
- created the first known star catalogue with more than 850 stars. The data was incorporated into the Almagest along with the first list of stellar magnitudes and was the primary astronomical reference until modern times, 190-120 BC. ** Bonner Durchmusterung - whole-sky astrometric star catalog, 1859–1903 ** Astrographic Catalogue - international astronomical survey of the entire sky. The survey was performed by 18 observatories using over 22,000 photographic plates. The results have been the basis of comparison for all subsequent surveys, 1887–1975. **
Henry Draper Catalogue The ''Henry Draper Catalogue'' (HD) is an astronomical star catalogue published between 1918 and 1924, giving spectroscopic classifications for 225,300 stars; it was later expanded by the ''Henry Draper Extension'' (HDE), published between 192 ...
- spectral classifications based on photographic plates, 1918–1924, extension 1925–1936 ** Catalina Sky Survey - an astronomical survey to discover comets and asteroids. ** Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey ** National Geographic Society – Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (NGS–POSS) – survey of the northern sky on photographic plates, 1948–1958 ** CfA Redshift Survey – A program from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. It began in 1977 to 1982 then from 1985 to 1995. ** Digitized Sky Survey – optical all-sky survey created from digitized photographic plates, 1994 ** 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dfGRS) – redshift survey conducted by the Anglo-Australian Observatory between 1997 and 2002 **
Sloan Digital Sky Survey The Sloan Digital Sky Survey or SDSS is a major multi-spectral imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey using a dedicated 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, United States. The project began in 2000 a ...
(SDSS) – an optical and spectroscopic survey, 2000–2006 (first pass) ** Photopic Sky Survey – a survey with 37,440 individual exposures, 2010–2011. ** DEEP2 Redshift Survey (DEEP2) – Used Keck Telescopes to measure redshift of 50,000 galaxies ** VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey (VVDS) – Franco-Italian study using the
Very Large Telescope The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory, located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each equipped with ...
at
Paranal Observatory Paranal Observatory is an astronomical observatory operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It is located in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile on Cerro Paranal at altitude, south of Antofagasta. By total light-collecting area, ...
** Palomar Distant Solar System Survey (PDSSS) ** WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey (2006–2011) used the
Australian Astronomical Observatory The Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory, was an optical and near-infrared astronomy observatory with its headquarters in North Ryde in suburban Sydney, Australia. Originally funded jointly by the G ...
** Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a survey about one-tenth of the sky to find clues to the characteristics of dark energy.- ** Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey (CALIFA) – a spectroscopic survey of galaxies ** SAGES Legacy Unifying Globulars and GalaxieS ( SAGES Legacy Unifying Globulars and GalaxieS Survey (SLUGGS) survey – a near-infrared spectro-photometric survey of 25 nearby early-type galaxies (2014) ** Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) – an extra-galactic and stellar spectroscopic survey ** IPHAS and VPHAS+ – surveys of the Galactic bulge and inner disk using the Isaac Newton Telescope (north) and VLT Survey Telescope (south) in u, g, r, Hα, and i bands, 2003–present **
Pan-STARRS The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS1; List of observatory codes, obs. code: IAU code#F51, F51 and Pan-STARRS2 obs. code: IAU code#F52, F52) located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, US, consists of astronomical ...
– a large-field survey system to look for transient and variable sources. 2010–present ** Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) – large-scale variability sky survey (in I and V bands), 1992–present ** DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys (Legacy Surveys) - large imaging survey of the extragalactic sky, in three bands and covering one third of the sky, 2013–present *
GSNST - Global Supernovae Search Team
- an all sky survey launched in August 2018 to look for Astronomical Transients ** Gaia catalogues of over a billion parallax distances ** Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) - a wide-field sky astronomical survey of the northern transient sky, 2018–present ** Euclid_(spacecraft) - An optical and IR survey of 15,000 square degrees in the sky from space, 2023-present. ** Vera C. Rubin Observatory * Infrared ** Infrared Astronomical Satellite did an all sky survey at 12, 25, 60, and 100 μm, 1983 ** The 2-micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), a ground-based all sky survey at J, H, and Ks bands (1.25, 1.65, and 2.17 μm) 1997–2001 ** Akari (Astro-F) a Japanese mid and far infrared all-sky survey satellite, 2006–2008 **
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, List of observatory codes, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and MIDEX-6) was a NASA infrared astronomy Space observatory, space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009.. . WISE L ...
(WISE) was launched in December 2009 to begin a survey of 99% of the sky at wavelengths of 3.3, 4.7, 12, and 23 μm. The telescope is over a thousand times as sensitive as previous infrared surveys. The initial survey, consisting of each sky position imaged at least eight times, was completed by July 2010. ** UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) – a collection of ground based northern hemisphere surveys (GPS, GCS, LAS, DXS, UDS) using the WFCAM camera on UKIRT, some wide and some very deep, in Z, Y, J, H, & K bands 2005– ** VISTA public surveys – a collection of ground based southern hemisphere surveys ( VVV, VMC, VHS, VIKING, VIDEO, UltraVISTA), of various areas and depths, in Z, Y, J, H, & Ks bands, 2009–present ** SCUBA-2 All Sky Survey ** Euclid_(spacecraft) - An optical and IR survey of 15,000 square degrees in the sky from space, 2023-present. ** Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to be launched in 2027 * Radio ** Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources ("3C") - Survey at 159 and 178 MHz published in 1959 ** HIPASS – Radio survey, the first blind HI survey to cover the entire southern sky. 1997–2002 *
B2 — Bologna Sky Survey at 408 MHz
(9929 radio sources) performed with the Northern Cross Radio Telescope *
B3 — The New Bologna Sky Survey at 408 MHz
(13354 radio sources) performed with the Northern Cross Radio Telescope ** Ohio Sky Survey – Over 19,000 radio sources at 1415 MHz. 1965–1973. ** NVSS – Survey at 1.4 GHz mapping the sky north of −40 deg ** FIRST – Survey to look for faint radio sources at twenty cms. ** SUMSS - Survey at 843 MHz, mapping the sky south of -30 deg with similar sensitivity and resolution to the northern NVSS ** PALFA Survey – A 1.4 GHz survey for radio
pulsar A pulsar (''pulsating star, on the model of quasar'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its Poles of astronomical bodies#Magnetic poles, magnetic poles. This radiation can be obse ...
s which used the
Arecibo Observatory The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) and formerly known as the Arecibo Ionosphere Observatory, is an observatory in Barrio Esperanza, Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science F ...
. ** GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey GASS designed to measure the neutral hydrogen content of a representative sample of ~1000 massive, galaxies ** C-BASS – On-going 5 GHz all sky survey to aid in the subtraction of galactic foregrounds from maps of the
Cosmic Microwave Background The cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR), or relic radiation, is microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universe. With a standard optical telescope, the background space between stars and galaxies is almost completely dar ...
**
EMU The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...
– A large radio continuum survey covering 3/4 of the sky, expected to discover about 70 million galaxies ** GMRT - The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope's TGSS ADR mapped the sky at 150 MHz. ** HTRU – A pulsar and radio transients survey of the northern and southern sky using the Parkes Radio Telescope and the Effelsberg telescope. * Gamma-ray ** Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, formerly referred to as the "Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST)." 2008–present; the goal for the telescope's lifetime is 10 years. * Multi-wavelength surveys ** GAMA – the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey combines data from a number of ground- and space-based observatories together with a large
redshift survey In astronomy, a redshift survey is a astronomical surveys, survey of a section of the sky to measure the redshift of astronomical objects: usually galaxies, but sometimes other objects such as galaxy clusters or quasars. Using Hubble's law, the ...
, performed at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The resulting dataset aims to be a comprehensive resource for studying the physics of the galaxy population and underlying mass structures in the recent universe. **
GOODS In economics, goods are anything that is good, usually in the sense that it provides welfare or utility to someone. Alan V. Deardorff, 2006. ''Terms Of Trade: Glossary of International Economics'', World Scientific. Online version: Deardorffs ...
– The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey. ** COSMOS – The
Cosmic Evolution Survey The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury Project to survey a two square degree equatorial field with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The largest survey ever undertaken by HST, the project incorpora ...
** CANDELS - The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey ** (The latter three surveys are joining observations obtained from space with the
Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...
, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the XMM-Newton satellite, with a large set of observations obtained with ground-based telescopes). ** Atlas 3d Survey – sample of 260 galaxies for the Astrophysics project. * Planned ** Vera C. Rubin Observatory – a proposed very large telescope designed to repeatedly survey the whole sky that is visible from its location ** Widefield ASKAP L-Band Legacy All-Sky Blind Survey (WALLABY) ** NEO Surveyor - mid-infrared survey focused on
near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body orbiting the Sun whose closest approach to the Sun ( perihelion) is less than 1.3 times the Earth–Sun distance (astronomical unit, AU). This definition applies to the object's orbit a ...
s, with other objects also surveyed ** DSA-2000 - an under-construction survey telescope intended to survey the northern sky between 0.7 and 2 GHz.


Surveys of the Magellanic Clouds

* Catalogues of H-α emission stars and nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds - published 1956 (Astrophys. J. Suppl., 2, 315) * MCELS (Magellanic Cloud Emission-line Survey) * The Magellanic Clouds Photometric Survey – UBVI (optical) * Deep Near Infrared Survey (DENIS) – near-IR


See also

* See
astronomical catalogue An astronomical catalogue is a list or tabulation of astronomical objects, typically grouped together because they share a common type, Galaxy morphological classification, morphology, origin, means of detection, or method of discovery. The olde ...
for a more detailed description of astronomical surveys and the production of astronomical catalogues *
Redshift survey In astronomy, a redshift survey is a astronomical surveys, survey of a section of the sky to measure the redshift of astronomical objects: usually galaxies, but sometimes other objects such as galaxy clusters or quasars. Using Hubble's law, the ...
s are astronomical surveys devoted to mapping the cosmos in three dimensions * :astronomical catalogues—List of astronomical catalogues on Wikipedia *
Astrograph An astrograph (or astrographic camera) is a telescope designed for the sole purpose of astrophotography. Astrographs are mostly used in wide-field astronomical surveys of the sky and for detection of objects such as asteroids, meteors, an ...
for a type of instrument used in Astronomical surveys. * Timeline of astronomical maps, catalogs, and surveys


References

{{Authority control Astronomical imaging Observational astronomy Survey