The ESA/ESO/NASA FITS Liberator makes it possible to process and edit astronomical science data in the FITS format to produce stunning images of the universe. Formerly a plugin for Adobe Photoshop, the current version of FITS Liberator is a stand-alone application and no longer requires Photoshop. This image processing software makes it possible to create color images using raw observations from a range of telescopes; the FITS Liberator continues to support the FITS and PDS formats, preferred by astronomers and planetary scientists respectively, which enables data to be processed from a wide range of telescopes and planetary probes, including ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, ESA’s XMM–Newton Telescope and Cassini–Huygens or Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

GaussFit solves least squares and robust estimation problems; written originally for reduction of NASA Hubble Space Telescope data, it includes a complete programming language designed especially to formulate estimation problems, a built-in compiler and interpreter to support the programming language, and a built-in algebraic manipulator for calculating the required partial derivatives analytically. The code can handle nonlinear models, exact constraints, correlated observations, and models where the equations of condition contain more than one observed quantity. Written in C, GaussFit includes an experimental robust estimation capability so data sets contaminated by outliers can be handled simply and efficiently.

centerRadon finds the center of stars based on Radon Transform to sub-pixel precision. For a coronagraphic image of a star, it starts from a given location, then for each sub-pixel position, it interpolates the image and sums the pixels along different angles, creating a cost function. The center of the star is expected to correspond with where the cost function maximizes. The default values are set for the STIS coronagraphic images of the Hubble Space Telescope by summing over the diagonals (i.e., 45° and 135°), but it can be generally applied to other high-contrast imaging instruments with or without Adaptive Optics systems such as HST-NICMOS, P1640, or GPI.

EXOSIMS generates and analyzes end-to-end simulations of space-based exoplanet imaging missions. The software is built up of interconnecting modules describing different aspects of the mission, including the observatory, optical system, and scheduler (encoding mission rules) as well as the physical universe, including the assumed distribution of exoplanets and their physical and orbital properties. Each module has a prototype implementation that is inherited by specific implementations for different missions concepts, allowing for the simulation of widely variable missions.

AutoBayes automatically generates customized algorithms from compact, declarative specifications in the data analysis domain, taking a statistical model as input and creating documented and optimized C/C++ code. The synthesis process uses Bayesian networks to enable problem decompositions and guide the algorithm derivation. Program schemas encapsulate advanced algorithms and data structures, and a symbolic-algebraic system finds closed-form solutions for problems and emerging subproblems. AutoBayes has been used to analyze planetary nebulae images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, and can be applied to other scientific data analysis tasks.