Flexible image transport system

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Flexible image transport system
File extension : .fits, .fit, .fts
MIME type : image / fits application / fits
Developed by: IAU FITS Working Group
Initial release: 1981
Current version: 3.0 (as of July 2008)
Type: open file format
Container for: Images, spectra and tables
Website : fits.gsfc.nasa.gov


The Flexible Image Transport System ( FITS ) is a flexible, open file format for images, spectra and tables that was developed by NASA in 1981 and is mainly used in the field of astronomy . It supports, among other things, multi-dimensional arrays with one and two-dimensional spectra as well as three- and multi-dimensional data cubes . TIFF is a subset of FITS with a similar image format. Unlike TIFF, FITS contains extensive description data in the file header , which means that the images can be interpreted independently of special programs.

FITS is one of the file formats recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU); it is used to save images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) from NASA.

More recently it has also been used by the Vatican Apostolic Library to store the valuable and ancient manuscripts and make them accessible.

Many common image viewing programs open images in FITS format, but only reproduce the header information to a limited extent.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MIME Sub-type Registrations for Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) , rfc4047.txt
  2. ^ IAU FITS Working Group . NASA .
  3. ^ Vatican Library: Avant-garde digitization . In: Vatican Radio, July 10, 2012.
  4. ↑ Richard Meusers: The Vatican makes its parchment permanent . In: Der Spiegel , No. 18, from May 7, 2010 (last accessed May 7, 2010).
  5. ↑ for example: XnView