HEASARCs

HEASARC, the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, is NASA’s primary archive for high-energy astrophysics data and related analysis tools. Based at the Goddard Space Flight Center, it serves as a central hub for collecting, curating, and distributing data from X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy missions. The phrase HEASARCs is sometimes used informally to refer to the network of data collections and services under the HEASARC umbrella.

The archive holds data from a wide range of missions, both past and present, encompassing X-ray and gamma-ray observations. Users can access raw and calibrated data, standard data products, catalogs, mission documentation, and software guides. Mission contributors include major observatories and satellites such as Chandra, XMM-Newton, Swift, Fermi, INTEGRAL, NuSTAR, and others, with extensive supporting materials to aid analysis and interpretation.

Access to HEASARC data is provided through multiple interfaces and tools. Researchers can search and retrieve data via web-based portals such as HEASARC Browse and Xamin, and download files in FITS format. The center also supplies a comprehensive software ecosystem, most notably the HEASoft package, which includes FTOOLS, XSPEC, XRONOS, XSELECT, and related utilities for data reduction, analysis, and spectral fitting. Documentation, tutorials, and example workflows are provided to assist users of varying experience.

DATA access policies generally favor public availability after mission-specific proprietary periods, supporting broad use by scientists, students, and educators. HEASARC emphasizes cross-mission data interoperability and standardization to facilitate comparative studies and reproducible research across the high-energy astrophysics community.