This document summarizes several astronomy databases: NASA provides information on its civilian space program; ADS is an online database of over 8 million astronomy papers; MAST archives data from space telescopes; and SETI searches for radio signals from intelligent extraterrestrial life. It describes the basic search functions of each database, including simple, advanced, and keyword searches of papers, data, and user profiles.

1. ASTRONOMY DATABASES
Presented by Kalpita Potawad
M.L.I.Sc
2012-2013

2. Astronomy databases
• NASA (National Aeronautics and Space
Administration)
• ads (Astrophysics Data System)
• MAST (MIKULSKI ARCHIVE FOR SPACE
TELESCOPES)
• SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)

3. NASA (National Aeronautics and
Space Administration)

4. About NASA
• The website address is www.nasa.gov
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is
the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the
nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and
aerospace research.
• NASA is conducting an array of science missions that will seek new
knowledge and understanding of Earth, the solar system and the
universe.
• NASA conducts its work in three principal organizations, called
mission directorates:
• Aeronautics
• Human Exploration and Operations
• Science

5. Search Result (simple search)
• It provides simple search as well as advance search.
• It provides the keyword search also.

6. Search result (Advance search)

7. ads (Astrophysics Data System)

8. ads (Astrophysics Data System)
• The Astrophysics Data System (usually referred to as ADS),
developed by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), is an online database of over eight
million astronomy and physics papers from both peer reviewed
and non-peer reviewed sources.
• ADS is a powerful research tool and has had a significant
impact on the efficiency of astronomical research since it was
launched in 1992.
• Use of ADS is almost universal among astronomers worldwide,
and therefore ADS usage statistics can be used to analyze
global trends in astronomical research.

9. Search results
• Although it was conceived as a means of accessing
abstracts and papers, ADS provides a substantial amount
of ancillary information along with search results.
• ADS user can determine which papers are of most
interest to astronomers who are interested in the subject
of a given paper.

10. MAST (MIKULSKI ARCHIVE FOR SPACE
TELESCPES)

11. About MAST
• MAST supports a variety of astronomical data archives,
with a primary focus on scientifically related data sets in
the optical, ultraviolet, and near-infrared parts of the
spectrum.
• See http://archive.stsci.edu/missions.html for a full list of
the mission, survey, and catalog data distributed by
MAST. MAST is a component of NASA's distributed
Space Science Data Services (SSDS).
• MAST archives a variety of spectral and image data with a
range of data characteristics.

12. Getting Started
• MAST Tutorial
• MAST Interfaces
• Finding Data
• Data Archive and Distribution Service (DADS)

13. Search and Retrieval
• It provides simple search as well as HST search.
• Users may also search the HST proposal abstracts and/or
proposal titles for specific character strings. This interface
also allows the user to search for a specific Guest
Investigator.

14. SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence)

15. About SETI
• SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is a
scientific area whose goal is to detect intelligent life
outside Earth. One approach, known as radio SETI, uses
radio telescopes to listen for narrow-bandwidth radio
signals from space.
• SETI@home was released to the public on May 17,
1999, making it the second large-scale use of distributed
computing over the Internet for research purposes.

16. Search results
• Extraterrestrial search means happening, existing, or
coming from somewhere beyond the planet earth.
• Various detailed and profiles of users of SETI can be
searched.

17. Reference
• http://adswww.harvard.edu/
• http://archive.stsci.edu/
• http://www.nasa.gov/
• http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/