Flexible Image Transport System
Sign in to saveAlso known as FITS, .fits, .fit, .fts
Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) is an open standard defining a digital file format used for storage, transmission and processing of data: formatted as multi-dimensional arrays (for example a 2D image), or tables. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy. The FITS standard was designed specifically for astronomical data, and includes provisions such as describing photometric and spatial calibration information, together with image origin metadata.
Key facts
- File format.name
- FITS
- File format._noextcode
- on
- File format.extension
- , ,
- File format.mime
- image/fitsapplication/fits
- File format.owner
- IAU FITS Working Group
- File format.latest release version
- 4.0
- File format.genre
- image format, structured data
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- file format
- Official website
- fits.gsfc.nasa.gov
Show 7 more facts
- file extension
- fts
- media type
- image/fits
- Stack Exchange tag
- stackoverflow.com/tags/fits
- publication date
- 1981-01-01
- described at URL
- fits.gsfc.nasa.gov/fits_standard.html
- file format identification pattern
- 53494D504C4520203D202020202020202020202020202020202020202054
- software version identifier
- NOST 100-1.0
via Wikidata · CC0
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Composition
- Adoption
- Current status
- See also
- References
- External links
Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) is an open standard defining a digital file format used for storage, transmission and processing of data: formatted as multi-dimensional arrays (for example a 2D image), or tables. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy. The FITS standard was designed specifically for astronomical data, and includes provisions such as describing photometric and spatial calibration information, together with image origin metadata.
The FITS format was first standardized in 1981; it has evolved gradually since then, and the most recent version (4.0) was standardized in 2016. FITS was designed with an eye towards long-term archival storage, and the maxim once FITS, always FITS represents the requirement that developments to the format must be backward compatible.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Flexible Image Transport System” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.