There have been many large surveys of the cosmos since the middle of the twentieth century. Below is a list of just a few of the most notable ones.
Notable Astronomical Surveys |
Survey Name |
Survey Dates |
Characteristics |
NGS-POSS |
1948–1958 |
Photographic survey from Mt. Palomar, CA |
IRAS |
1983 |
First far-infrared survey of the entire sky |
COBE-DMR |
1989–1992 |
First survey of the entire cosmic microwave background |
NRAO VLA Sky Survey |
1993–1996 |
Radio survey of continuum emission from VLA, NM |
FIRST |
1993–2003 |
High-resolution radio continuum survey from VLA, NM |
Hubble Deep Fields |
1995, 1998 |
Multi-day Hubble Space Telescope image of two patches of sky |
HIPASS |
1997–2002 |
Radio survey of atomic hydrogen gas from Australia |
2 Micron All Sky Survey |
1997–2001 |
Near-infrared survey of the entire sky |
Sloan Digital Sky Survey |
2000–2005 |
Digital optical survey from Sacramento Peak,
NM |
Hubble Ultra Deep Field |
2003–2004 |
Deepest astronomical image ever obtained |
Cosmic Evolution Survey |
2004–2007 |
Largest contiguous area surveyed with the Hubble Space Telescope |
CANDELS |
2010–2013 |
Most Hubble Space Telescope time ever devoted to a single survey |