The Atlas · 3D Coordinate Catalogues · v1 · 2026-05-09

The Atlas of 3D Coordinate Catalogues

Every paper that publishes per-source 3D position, laid out by the distance scale it covers. Each bar spans the actual distance range of the catalogue's sources; the gaps are where no one has yet published a 3D map. Bars colour-coded by source class. Status dots: filled = a RAVEN map already renders this catalogue; outline = candidate for future RAVEN map; ✕ = ruled out, see notes.

"Maps come from mapping papers. Distance pipelines do not."

Status

●Rendered as a RAVEN map
○Candidate · not yet built
✕Ruled out · see notes

Source Class

Click any bar above to see its full catalogue record — sources covered, distance method, archive link, and a link to the RAVEN map (where one exists).

How to read this atlas

The horizontal axis is heliocentric distance, in true log10(distance / parsec), running from 1 pc on the left to 10 Gpc on the right — ten orders of magnitude. Major decade ticks are labelled in the band strip at the top. Distance bands embed the names of the regimes they cover (Solar Neighbourhood · Local Disc · Galactic · Halo · Local Group · Local Volume · Local Universe · Cosmological).

Beneath the spectrum, every paper that publishes per-source 3D positions is drawn as a horizontal bar over the exact distance range it covers. Wide bars are wide-distance catalogues (Vasiliev & Baumgardt 2021 globulars span ~2 to 120 kpc; DESI DR1 LSS spans ~100 Mpc to 4.5 Gpc); narrow bars are population-specific (Pietrzyński+ 2019 LMC eclipsing binaries cluster at 50 kpc). Bars are grouped into lanes by source class so the eye can scan vertically.

What counts as a "mapping paper"

A mapping paper's central scientific contribution is the 3D spatial distribution of a specific named source class. The headline result of the paper is the map.
  • ✓ Smart+ 2021 GCNS — maps the 100-pc stellar population.
  • ✓ Hunt & Reffert 2024 — maps the Milky Way OC system.
  • ✓ Skowron+ 2019 — maps the Galactic Cepheids.
  • ✓ Edenhofer+ 2024 — 3D dust voxel map.

Generic distance pipelines do not count. Bailer-Jones+ 2021 (geometric and photo-geometric distances for 1.47 billion Gaia EDR3 sources) is excluded — its contribution is a Bayesian inversion technique, not a map of any specific population. The same standard excludes generic Gaia astrometric solution papers and stellar-parameter pipelines.

References

Every entry in the atlas is its own reference; click any bar for the bibcode and archive link. The references below cite the umbrella tools and review papers used in compiling and laying out the atlas.

  • VizieR / CDS — Ochsenbein, Bauer & Marcout (2000), A&AS 143, 23. The canonical access point for nearly every catalogue listed here.
  • Gaia DR3 — Gaia Collaboration et al. (2023), A&A 674, A1. Underlying astrometry for most stellar 3D catalogues.
  • NASA ADS — Kurtz et al. (2000+). Bibcode resolution for all references.
  • Reid & Brunthaler (2004), ApJ 616, 872 — Galactic-frame conventions used for cross-overlays in companion RAVEN maps.
Atlas · 3D Coordinate Catalogues · v1 · 2026-05-09 · self-contained, no external data fetches