John Moustakas

Surveys and Data Releases

Much of my work goes into building surveys, atlases, and public data releases that the whole astronomical community can use.

Siena Galaxy Atlas

Montage of 42 color images of nearby galaxies from the Siena Galaxy Atlas
A sample of galaxies from the Siena Galaxy Atlas 2020.

A multiwavelength atlas of large, nearby galaxies built from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys (SGA-2020, and SGA-2025 in preparation). Built with the SGA pipeline.

  1. Siena Galaxy Atlas 2025 Lead author
    J. Moustakas, D. Lang et al. 2026, to be submitted to The Astrophysical Journal
  2. Siena Galaxy Atlas 2020 Lead author
    J. Moustakas, D. Lang, A. Dey et al. 2023, ApJS, 269, 3 ADS arXiv DOI

FastSpecFit Catalogs

FastSpecFit model of a DESI Bright Galaxy Survey target at redshift 0.0813: the broadband spectral energy distribution with photometry and a color image of the galaxy, the full DESI spectrum with its best-fitting model, and zoomed-in fits to four groups of emission lines.
FastSpecFit model of a DESI Bright Galaxy Survey galaxy at z=0.0813: the ultraviolet-to-infrared spectral energy distribution (top), the DESI spectrum (middle), and fits to the strongest emission lines (bottom).

Stellar-continuum and emission-line measurements for every extragalactic target in the DESI data releases, from FastSpecFit.

  1. FastSpecFit: Spectrophotometric Modeling of 38 Million Extragalactic Targets from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Second Data Release Lead author
    J. Moustakas, J. Buhler, D. Scholte et al. 2026, The Astronomical Journal, submitted
  2. FastSpecFit: Fast spectral synthesis and emission-line fitting of DESI spectra Lead author
    J. Moustakas, J. Buhler, D. Scholte et al. 2023, Astrophysics Source Code Library, ascl:2308.005 ADS

DESI Data Releases

Two broad wedges made of thousands of tiny dots in shades of blue on a black background. A magnified inset reveals a filamentary network of galaxies.
The three-dimensional map of the universe from five years of DESI observations. Credit: Claire Lamman/DESI collaboration.

The public spectroscopic data releases of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, so far the Early Data Release (EDR) and Data Release 1 (DR1). I was the principal author of the DR1 paper.

  1. Data Release 1 of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Principal author
    DESI Collaboration, M. Abdul Karim, (J. Moustakas, 187th coauthor) et al. 2026, AJ, 171, 285 ADS arXiv DOI
  2. The Early Data Release of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
    DESI Collaboration, A. Adame, (J. Moustakas, 174th coauthor) et al. 2024, AJ, 168, 58 ADS arXiv DOI

DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys

All-sky map of r-band depth in Legacy Surveys DR11, labeled by contributing survey
r-band depth of Legacy Surveys DR11, labeled by contributing survey.

The imaging used to select DESI targets, publicly released in Data Releases 1–11 (2015–2026).

  1. DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys: Data Releases 9 and 11
    D. Schlegel et al. 2026, in preparation
  2. Overview of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys
    A. Dey, D. Schlegel, (J. Moustakas, 16th coauthor) et al. 2019, AJ, 157, 168 ADS arXiv DOI

PRIMUS

The PRIsm MUlti-object Survey, a low-resolution spectroscopic survey of galaxies to redshift z∼1.

  1. The PRIsm MUlti-object Survey (PRIMUS). II. Data Reduction and Redshift Fitting
    R. Cool, J. Moustakas, M. Blanton et al. 2013, ApJ, 767, 118 ADS arXiv DOI
  2. The PRIsm MUlti-object Survey (PRIMUS). I. Survey Overview and Characteristics
    A. Coil, M. Blanton, (J. Moustakas, 6th coauthor) et al. 2011, ApJ, 741, 8 ADS arXiv DOI

Spectrophotometric Atlases of Nearby Galaxies

Integrated optical spectra of nearby galaxies from my thesis, and an atlas of their ultraviolet-to-mid-infrared spectral energy distributions.

  1. An Atlas of Galaxy Spectral Energy Distributions from the Ultraviolet to the Mid-infrared
    M. Brown, J. Moustakas, J. Smith et al. 2014, ApJS, 212, 18 ADS arXiv DOI
  2. An Integrated Spectrophotometric Survey of Nearby Star-forming Galaxies Lead author
    J. Moustakas & R. C. Kennicutt, Jr. 2006, ApJS, 164, 81–98 ADS arXiv DOI