Astronomers have long sought to map the night sky, not only to complement our understanding of the universe we live in, but also to support further research.

However, these scientific sources must be periodically updated to reflect technological improvements in telescopes, and in this context, astronomers have created a comprehensive atlas of nearly 400,000 galaxies in our cosmic neighborhood.

The atlas, called the “Siena Atlas of Galaxies,” was compiled using data from the US National Science Foundation’s Noirlab telescopes and is designed to be a digital galaxy atlas dedicated to large galaxies. Galaxy formation and evolution into dark matter and gravitational waves. It is also freely available online for the public to explore. The atlas was presented in a paper appearing in the subseries of The Astrophysical Journal.

3 Summary of studies

The Siena Atlas of the Galaxy is a compilation of data from 3 surveys completed between 2014 and 2017 to identify galactic targets. Data were collected at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Laboratory and Kitt Peak National Laboratory. “NOERLAB” projects, and at the Stewart Laboratory at the University of Arizona.

The surveys used state-of-the-art instruments on telescopes operated by Neurolab, and the survey data, as well as a searchable version of the full Siena Galaxy Atlas, were made available to the astronomical community via the Astra Data Lab science platform. Astronomy Data Archive at the Social Science and Data Center affiliated with Noirlab.

The Siena Atlas of Galaxies contains additional data from a study by NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite, reprocessed by Neuerlaub astronomer Aaron Meissner.

The probes took images at optical and infrared wavelengths and mapped a total of 20,000 square degrees, half of the night sky, making it one of the largest galaxy surveys ever.

By bringing this wealth of information into one place, the Siena Atlas of the Galaxy provides precise data on the positions, shapes and sizes of hundreds of thousands of large, relatively nearby galaxies. Besides, the data in the atlas reaches a new level of precision.

An atlas for researchers and the general public

The Siena Atlas of the Galaxy builds on a centuries-long effort to chart the night sky. The famous catalog of nebulae and star clusters published by the French astronomer Charles Messier in 1774 was a milestone, as was the new general catalog of nebulae and star clusters published by John Louis-Emilie Dreyer in 1888.

In 1991, astronomers compiled the Third Bright Catalog of Galaxies. Several valuable galaxy atlases have been published over the past two decades, but most are based on photographic plate measurements of the third brightest catalog of galaxies or are missing large numbers. Galaxies.. Since the Siena Atlas of Galaxies uses digital images taken with highly sensitive instruments, it represents a significant improvement in data quality and completeness.

Previous constellations suffered from inaccurate locations, sizes, and shapes of galaxies, and contained information about objects other than galaxies, such as stars. Galaxy’s Siena Atlas goes beyond all of these.

This versatile resource is driving progress in many branches of astronomy and astrophysics, helping researchers find better galaxy models. However, it is important to note that the atlas is not just for academic researchers; It is available to watch online for free for anyone who wants to get to know our corner of the universe better.