Aladin is an interactive software sky atlas, created inFrance. It allows the user to visualize digitized astronomical images, superimpose entries from astronomical catalogues or databases, and interactively access related data and information from theSIMBAD database, theVizieR service and other archives for all known sources in the field.[1]
Created in 1999, Aladin has become a widely usedVO portal capable of addressing challenges such as locating data of interest, accessing and exploring distributed datasets, visualizing multi-wavelength data. Compliance with existing or emerging VO standards, interconnection with other visualisation or analysis tools, and ability to easily compare heterogeneous data are key features allowing Aladin to be a powerfuldata exploration andintegration tool, and a science enabler.[2]
Aladin is developed and maintained by theCentre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS) and released under theGNU GPL v3.[3][4]
Since release 7 Aladin is distributed under a GNU GPL v3 licence.
