Function Repository Resource:

SIMBADData

Source Notebook

Import astronomical data from the SIMBAD database

Contributed by: Truman Tapia

ResourceFunction["SIMBADData"][obj, property]

queries SIMBAD and gives the value of the specified property for an astronomical object.

ResourceFunction["SIMBADData"][{obj₁,obj₂,…},property]

gives the list of values of the specified property for each of the objects.

ResourceFunction["SIMBADData"][obj,{property₁,property₂,…}]

gives the list of values of the property_i for the specified astronomical object.

ResourceFunction["SIMBADData"][objs,properties]

gives the values of the properties for the specified objects.

ResourceFunction["SIMBADData"][assoc,properties]

gives the values of the properties for the astronomical objects specified by an association.

Details and Options

ResourceFunction["SIMBADData"] retrieves data from SIMBAD (Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data) using the table access protocol (TAP).

The astronomical object obj can be specified as an Entity or String.

ResourceFunction["SIMBADData"]["Properties"] shows all the available properties.

ResourceFunction["SIMBADData"] takes the following option:

"DataSource"

"France"

a String representing the source of the data; "US" and "France" are allowed

If an Association is used as the first argument, a sky region is interpreted from the values of the keys "AstroCenter" and "AstroRange"; MaxItems can specify the number of objects to retrieve.

"AstroCenter" takes the center of the circle; it can be an Entity or {ra,dec} specifying right ascension and declination.

"AstroRange" can take the following settings:

explicit radius of a circle

{{ra₁,ra₂},{dec₁,dec₂}}

explicit limit for right ascension and declination

{{ra₁,dec₁},{ra₂,dec₂},{ra₃,dec₃},…}

a polygon constructed with the specified vertices

{entity₁,entity₂,entity₃,…}

a polygon constructed using Entity objects as vertices

All the angles that specify a sky region are assumed to be in degrees, but they can be Quantity expressions as well.

The maximum number of astronomical objects that can be obtained at a time is 50 000 by a sky region query, but in an object query, this number is much lower.

The following modifiers can be used in ResourceFunction["SIMBADData"]["keywords",property,"modifier"]:

"ObjectAssociation"

an association with the input objects as keys and their properties as values

"Association"

a nested association with object keys on the first level and property keys on the second level

"Dataset"

a dataset containing the same structure of the "Association" modifier

"ExternalIdentifierAssociation"

an association of SIMBAD external identifiers as keys and their properties as values

ExternalIdentifier is used to uniquely represent an astronomical object in the SIMBAD database.

Examples

Basic Examples (2)

Retrieve the SIMBAD main identifier of a star:

In[1]:=

Out[1]=

Get the position of that star with uncertainty:

In[2]:=

Out[2]=

Get the radial velocity of a list of stars:

In[3]:=

Out[3]=

Scope (4)

Look up all properties for the galaxy M31:

In[4]:=

Out[4]=

Request information about five astronomical objects within a circle of radius centered at :

In[5]:=

ResourceFunction[
"SIMBADData", ResourceSystemBase -> "https://www.wolframcloud.com/obj/resourcesystem/api/1.0"][<|
"AstroCenter" -> Entity["AstronomicalRadioSource", "SagittariusAStar"], "AstroRange" -> Quantity[5, "ArcMinutes"], MaxItems -> 5|>, {"RightAscension", "Declination", "ObjectTypes"}, "ObjectAssociation"]

Out[5]=

Look up five astronomical objects inside a rectangular sky region:

In[6]:=

Out[6]=

Look up five astronomical objects inside a triangle whose vertices are stars:

In[7]:=

ResourceFunction[
"SIMBADData", ResourceSystemBase -> "https://www.wolframcloud.com/obj/resourcesystem/api/1.0"][<|
"AstroRange" -> {Entity["Star", "Unukalhai"], Entity["Star", "EtaSerpentis"], Entity["Star", "XiSerpentis"]}, MaxItems -> 5|>, {"RightAscension", "Declination", "ObjectTypes"}, "ObjectAssociation"]

Out[7]=

Options (1)

DataSource (1)

Select a mirror in France as the data source:

In[8]:=

Out[8]=

Properties & Relations (2)

Look for for the spectral class of a star:

In[9]:=

Out[9]=

Use this result to extract more information about the star:

In[10]:=

Out[10]=

Get the redshift of the quasar "3C 273":

In[11]:=

Out[11]=

Get the properties of the universe based on the redshift of this object:

In[12]:=

Out[12]=

Possible Issues (1)

If no astronomical object is found, Missing is returned:

In[13]:=

Out[13]=

Publisher

Truman Tapia

Version History

2.1.0 – 17 April 2023
2.0.1 – 28 October 2022
2.0.0 – 28 September 2021

Source Metadata

Citation:
- Wenger, M. et al., "The SIMBAD astronomical database. The CDS reference database for astronomical objects." Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series, vol. 143, no. 1, 9–22, 2000. DOI: 10.1051/aas:2000332

Related Resources

License Information

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Wolfram Function Repository

SIMBADData

Details and Options