juliensimon/supernova-remnants

---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "Green's Supernova Remnant Catalog"
language:
- en
description: "Galactic supernova remnants from Green's catalog with positions, angular sizes, radio flux, and spectral indices"
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
tags:
- supernova-remnant
- snr
- astronomy
- radio
- galactic
- open-data
size_categories:
- n<1K
---

# Green's Supernova Remnant Catalog


Complete catalog of Galactic supernova remnants from
[Green's SNR Catalog](https://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/surveys/snrs/),
sourced via NASA HEASARC. Currently **297** SNRs.

## Dataset description

Supernova remnants (SNRs) are the expanding shells of gas and dust left behind after a
supernova explosion. They are key sources of cosmic rays and play a major role in the
chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium. Green's catalog is the standard reference
for Galactic SNRs, maintained since 1984.

This dataset includes positions (equatorial and Galactic), angular sizes, morphological
type, 1 GHz radio flux density, and radio spectral index for each remnant.

## Schema

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `name` | string | SNR designation (Galactic coordinates, e.g. "G001.0-00.1") |
| `alt_names` | string | Alternative/common names (e.g. "Cas A", "Crab Nebula") |
| `ra` | float | Right ascension (degrees) |
| `dec` | float | Declination (degrees) |
| `lii` | float | Galactic longitude (degrees) |
| `bii` | float | Galactic latitude (degrees) |
| `major_diameter` | float | Angular size major axis (arcmin) |
| `minor_diameter` | float | Angular size minor axis (arcmin) |
| `type` | string | Morphological type code (S, F, C, ?) |
| `flux_1_ghz` | float | Radio flux density at 1 GHz (Jy) |
| `spectral_index` | float | Radio spectral index |
| `snr_type_name` | string | Full type name: shell, filled-centre, composite, uncertain |

## Quick stats

- **297** supernova remnants
- **234** shell, **9** filled-centre, **37** composite

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/supernova-remnants", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# SNRs by type
print(df["snr_type_name"].value_counts())

# Brightest SNRs at 1 GHz
top = df.nlargest(10, "flux_1_ghz")[["name", "alt_names", "flux_1_ghz"]]

# Sky distribution in Galactic coordinates
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.scatter(df["lii"], df["bii"], s=5)
plt.xlabel("Galactic longitude (deg)")
plt.ylabel("Galactic latitude (deg)")
plt.title("Galactic SNR Distribution")
```

## Data source

All data comes from [Green's SNR Catalog](https://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/surveys/snrs/)
hosted by NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC),
accessed via the TAP protocol.

## Update schedule

Quarterly (1st Monday of January, April, July, October at 19:00 UTC) via
[GitHub Actions](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets).

## Related datasets

- [gamma-ray-bursts](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gamma-ray-bursts) — Fermi GBM GRB Catalog
- [gravitational-waves](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gravitational-waves) — LIGO/Virgo detections
- [exoplanets](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/exoplanets) — NASA Exoplanet Archive

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{supernova_remnants,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {Green's Supernova Remnant Catalog},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/supernova-remnants},
note = {Based on Green's SNR Catalog via NASA HEASARC}
}
```

## License

[CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)