Astronomy software as a research area encompasses the design, development, and validation of computational tools, algorithms, and frameworks that support observational and theoretical astrophysics. It includes pipeline software for data reduction and calibration, source detection and characterization, astrometric and photometric analysis, numerical simulations of astrophysical systems, and visualization and archive interfaces for large survey datasets. Research focuses on methods for handling high-throughput, heterogeneous data streams from ground- and space-based instruments, optimizing performance on high-performance and distributed computing architectures, ensuring reproducibility, and developing interoperable standards and APIs that integrate with virtual observatory infrastructures and community data repositories.
A team of astronomers has employed a cutting-edge, artificial intelligence–assisted technique to uncover rare astronomical phenomena within archived data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The team analyzed nearly 100 million ...
Astronomy
Jan 27, 2026
1
83
Scientists have discovered over 6,000 planets that orbit stars other than our sun, known as exoplanets. More than half of these planets were discovered thanks to data from NASA's retired Kepler mission and NASA's current ...
Planetary Sciences
Jan 22, 2026
0
42
Researchers have successfully performed the world's first Milky Way simulation that accurately represents more than 100 billion individual stars over the course of 10 thousand years. This feat was accomplished by combining ...
Astronomy
Nov 17, 2025
4
1709
A pair of Sydney Ph.D. students helped sharpen the view of humanity's most powerful space observatory—without leaving Earth. As an indelible reminder of this thrilling result, Louis Desdoigts, now a postdoctoral researcher ...
Astronomy
Oct 14, 2025
0
364
Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory has released open-source software to detect potentially harmful shooting stars, called bolides—bright meteors that explode as they enter Earth's atmosphere. The software can ...
Space Exploration
Sep 25, 2025
0
44
A powerful software tool capable of accurately modeling how cameras capture light could help democratize the development of new imaging systems for use in space.
Astronomy
Sep 18, 2025
0
17
A new AI-powered tool has reduced astronomers' workload by 85%—filtering through thousands of data alerts to identify the few genuine signals caused by supernovae (powerful explosions from dying stars). The findings are published ...
Astronomy
Sep 9, 2025
0
56
Over the course of more than two decades, researchers at the University of Bern have developed the so-called "Bern model," a suite of computer programs that can numerically simulate the formation of planetary systems, thus ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 9, 2025
0
52
When astronauts make the long journey to Mars in the not-so-distant future, communication with mission control will be impossible for days to weeks at a time. Enter Daphne-AT: a virtual assistant (VA) designed to help astronauts ...
Space Exploration
Jun 27, 2025
2
68
Astrobee is a free-flying robotic system developed by NASA that is made up of three distinct cube-shaped robots. This system was originally designed to help astronauts who are working at the International Space Station (ISS) ...
