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"The number of stars cataloged is different in each NASA database, and they constantly change with new discoveries. TESS mission has identified over 130 million light curves of stars, SAO Star Catalogue has more than 258,000 stars, while NASA's GAIA mission has provided data for nearly two billion stars."
When looking at the night sky, we see hundreds of stars. However, that is only a tiny part of what is actually out there. Our mind can't even comprehend the number of stars in the universe altogether. Every one of us has heard the statement that there are ten times more stars in the night sky than little grains of sand in the world's beaches combined. Despite this statement's poetic nature, it holds some truth to it. The most legitimate form of stellar lists people should trust is advanced catalogs and databases made by research institutes and space agencies.
Surely, NASA is one of the first names that comes to mind when thinking about space exploration and data. In fact, NASA has an extensive collection of stellar data—more than seven separate databases, each with its own context and purpose.
In general, NASA is an independent agency that deals with space research and always keeps us updated with the latest astronomy findings. They have advanced databases with factual information about any space-related issue. However, this doesn't include an overall number of all the stars cataloged.
To fully comprehend all the stellar findings and why we can't find NASA-approved statements of the number of stars, we have to investigate this matter a bit deeper.
In this article, we will learn about NASA's databases, their research, and the main criteria for adding a star to them. We will also find out why it's impossible to count all the stars in NASA's databases, as the universe is so huge and new stars are discovered constantly.
Before we dive into specific NASA databases, we have to understand that the Milky Way galaxy, the one where we live, has roughly 100 billion stars, and there are 2 trillion galaxies in the whole Universe. That's why it can be hard to tell how many stars are there in total.
NASA has one of the most significant collections of data sets in the whole world. These databases contain a wealth of information gathered from spacecraft missions, telescopes, satellites, and other sources. They receive more than 3 gigabytes of data from nearly 100 active missions every few seconds. Moreover, they have massive databases with general information about space processes, astronomic bodies, and physical calculations - basically, everything they ever discovered or measured.
NASA even developed a catalog of datasets that implements all the research results and findings to improve public access to scientific data. Every bit of information is stored in NASA's Open Data Portal. You just have to know what you're looking for; the desired facts are one click away.
Some notable NASA databases include:
Next, we must remember that NASA's Astrophysics division studies stellar research as one of its subjects. This means scientists will gather all the data about stars in the collective archive, which they also use for astrophysical matters. Other fields of NASA's Astrophysics research are:
To collect star data, NASA studies how stars form and die, classifies different star types, and looks at the factors that affect them, both inside and outside. Information gathered from these studies we can find in archives of Astrophysical Data Centers.
Every Astrophysics Data Center has its own database with a particular subject and characterizations. Most of these centers are independent and work with NASA on a project basis.
For example, SIMBAD, or the Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data, is a project in which NASA collaborates with the Strasbourg astronomy institution. SIMBAD provides primary data (hence the descriptive name) for celestial objects outside the solar system. Astronomy enthusiasts have reported that SIMBAD contained information for 1,500,000 stars in the early 2000s, but now it contains more than 4.5 million stars.
Some other databases that include information about stars and other celestial objects are, for example, VizieR. Operated by the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS), VizieR is a database that provides access to various astronomical catalogs and data tables and offers a wide range of data on stars, galaxies, clusters, and others. As of 2021, it contains data from over 20,000 astronomical catalogs, each potentially containing data on thousands to millions of stars.
SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) is one of the most ambitious and influential astronomical surveys to date. It has generated extensive datasets on millions of celestial objects, including stars, galaxies, and quasars, and made them publicly available for scientific research.
Another essential NASA stellar archive that supports astrophysics (a.k.a. the science of stars) is the Star and Exoplanet Database (NStED). Exoplanets are planets outside the solar system that orbit around other stars. Thus, NStED is a database of 140,000 nearby stars and exoplanet-hosting stars with additional information about each detected object's planet-finding and characterization goals.
NASA has made an impressive contribution to space research. However, this agency still depends on human resources and technology. This means that, in addition to success stories, there are a few development issues.
One of the scientific mysteries of this matter is the Nearby Star Database (NSTAR), the NASA project that began in 1998. The idea was to create complete and accurate data about nearby stars (25 parsecs). This would be very useful regarding our topic, but this database faced unknown problems.
In 2002, it was available to the public and contained 2,633 stars, yet in 2008, it shut down. There was a message that the database would return to service after the redesign. However, it never happened.
There aren't any definite statements about this project except for unofficial updates on the NSTAR website. Additional information shows that NASA passed its work to other organizations, such as SIMBAD, NEXXUS, and RECONS. This is great because it ensures they won't waste all the hard work. However, these projects don't seem novel and active at the moment, and every fact about NSTAR is questionable.
Cataloging stars for NASA databases must meet several critical parameters. Alongside brightness or 'magnitude,' which is essential for visibility and classification, the star's position plays a significant role.
A star's coordinates in the sky, its right ascension, and declination help astronomers locate it precisely. Another important factor is the star's spectral type, a classification based on the star's temperature and the characteristics of its light spectrum. This can give insights into the star's composition and stage in its life cycle.
Additionally, NASA considers factors like the star's motion (its proper motion, radial velocity, and parallax), size, and mass. It's worth noting that the possibility of measuring these parameters often depends on the star's distance from Earth and the technology available.
If you'd like to delve deeper into one such parameter, brightness, our blog post "What affects the brightness of a star" provides a comprehensive guide.
For those who still want to hear a specific number of how many stars there are- astronomers estimate that the universe could contain up to one septillion stars – that's one followed by 24 zeros. Our Milky Way galaxy alone has over 100 billion, including our most known star, the Sun. Just keep in mind that this is a rough number, and there is still a lot of scientific digging to do.
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