Abbr. for Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data, a database created and maintained by the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS). It brings together basic data, cross-identifications, observational measurements, and a bibliography, for celestial objects outside the Solar System. SIMBAD contains information on over 9 million objects, and can be searched electronically. It first went online in 1981.
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad Online portal to SIMBAD astronomical database.