- Data types
- Images, spectra, catalogues, time series
- Access
- Varies by collection
Explore the record
MAST searches data across telescope and research collections. Interpret a record with its observation identifier, instrument, filter and time information.
Check each collection’s access status and data-use conditions in its original record.
Treat MAST as an archive serving multiple missions and collections rather than one ready-made table. A search result can describe a target, observation and product, with different processing levels or file types for the same target. The first available download is not automatically suitable for the question. Decide whether an image, spectrum or time series is needed, then inspect instrument, filter, observation time, exposure and product description. Distinguishing public from restricted products is part of data discovery: appearing in an archive search does not automatically grant use of every file.
For reproducible work, retain observation and product identifiers together. Processing updates can generate different files from the same sky measurement. A combined or high-level product incorporates producer choices and is not synonymous with a raw observation. FITS headers, time systems, units and quality flags are analysis inputs. Replacing a missing value with zero or removing every quality flag can change the conclusion. Inspecting a small table in the platform’s data studio is useful, but that local exercise does not imply automatic verification of the entire archive or submission of files to a server on the researcher’s behalf.
Begin with one target, one instrument and a specified date interval. Record why a file was selected, its source link and each transformation. Preserve the reference used to normalise a light curve; state that resampling an image does not create a new observation. A next step is testing whether another person can recover the same product using your selections. Check citation and data-use conditions in the collection’s own guidance. This record provides neither a new archive licence nor a mirror of every collection or an access entitlement. It supplies a method for selecting suitable products while preserving their provenance.
Other names / spellings: Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes · Hubble · TESS · JWST
EVIDENCE AND SOURCE
Follow the original record.
- STScI · MAST
Open the original institutional record.
- Access
- Open data
- Usage information
- Collection-specific data-use conditions
The linked institution’s record and usage conditions apply. Catalogue access does not by itself permit republication of the file.