SIMBAD

{{short description|Astronomical database}}

{{Other uses|Simbad (disambiguation)}}

{{More citations needed|date=August 2023}}

File:EU-FR-AL-67@Strasbourg-Observatoire 03.jpg]]

SIMBAD (the Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data) is an astronomical database of objects beyond the Solar System. It is maintained by the Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS), France.

SIMBAD was created by merging the Catalog of Stellar Identifications (CSI) and the Bibliographic Star Index as they existed at the Meudon Computer Centre until 1979, and then expanded by additional source data from other catalogues and the academic literature. The first on-line interactive version, known as Version 2, was made available in 1981. {{cite journal|title= SIMBAD Story - a Description of the Database of the Strasbourg Stellar Data Center |journal= Bulletin d'Information du Centre de Donnees Stellaires|volume=24 |date=March 1983 |page=109 |bibcode= 1983BICDS..24..109E |url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1983BICDS..24..109E|last1= Egret|first1= D.}}

Version 3, developed in the C language and running on UNIX stations at the Volgograd Observatory, was released in 1990. Fall of 2006 saw the release of Version 4 of the database, now stored in PostgreSQL, and the supporting software, now written entirely in Java.{{cite journal|url=https://aas.aanda.org/articles/aas/pdf/2000/07/ds1821.pdf | title=The SIMBAD astronomical database | journal=Astronomy & Astrophysics |date=April 1, 2000 |page=9-22 |number=143}}{{cite web|url=http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/guide/simbad.htx |title=what is SIMBAD | access-date=January 8, 2021|publisher=SIMBAD}}

{{As of|2020|6|1}}, SIMBAD contains information for 5,800,000 stars and about 5,500,000 nonstellar objects (galaxies, planetary nebulae, clusters, novae and supernovae, etc.).

The minor planet 4692 SIMBAD was named in its honour.{{cite book |title=Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (4692) SIMBAD |last=Schmadel |first=Lutz D. |publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg |page=404 |date=2003 |isbn=978-3-540-29925-7 |doi=10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_4607 |chapter = (4692) Simbad}}