Sky Surveys
Systematic surveys mapping the cosmos.
10 entries.
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
2000–present
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has mapped more than a third of the sky and the spectra of millions of galaxies, quasars, and stars, building a 3D map of the universe.
2MASS
1997–2001
The Two Micron All Sky Survey imaged the entire sky in three near-infrared bands, cataloguing hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies.
WISE All-Sky Survey
2010
WISE surveyed the whole sky in infrared light, producing a catalogue of more than 500 million objects.
Gaia Data Release 3
2022
Gaia Data Release 3 provides positions, distances, motions, and physical properties for nearly two billion stars — the most detailed map of the Milky Way to date.
Pan-STARRS
2010–present
Pan-STARRS in Hawaii repeatedly images the sky to discover asteroids, comets, and transient events, including the first interstellar object, ʻOumuamua.
Dark Energy Survey
2013–2019
The Dark Energy Survey mapped hundreds of millions of galaxies from Cerro Tololo to probe the nature of cosmic acceleration.
Legacy Survey of Space and Time
2025
The Legacy Survey of Space and Time, conducted by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, will image the entire southern sky every few nights for a decade.
Digitized Sky Survey
The Digitized Sky Survey is a digital scan of historical photographic sky surveys, a foundational all-sky reference for astronomy.
Hubble Deep Field
1995
The Hubble Deep Field was a long exposure of a tiny, apparently empty patch of sky that revealed thousands of distant galaxies.
Hubble Ultra Deep Field
2004
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field went deeper still, capturing some of the most distant galaxies ever seen in visible and near-infrared light.