astropy

World coordinate system transformations are handled by parsing FITS headers and applying WCS mappings to translate pixel coordinates into celestial coordinates. The astropy toolkit provides built-in modules to perform these transformations natively alongside FITS I/O operations.

Astronomical coordinate transformations and unit management are unified through dedicated coordinates and units modules. This approach ensures consistent physical unit handling and frame conversions across datasets, reducing fragmentation from using multiple separate Python libraries.

Cosmology calculations and time scale conversions fully support NumPy array operations. The toolkit integrates with NumPy and SciPy environments, allowing you to compute cosmological models and convert time scales across large datasets efficiently.

A unified Python toolkit for FITS I/O and table manipulation exists within the astropy ecosystem. It provides dedicated modules for reading, writing, and manipulating FITS files and astronomical tables, streamlining data handling from small catalogs to large survey images.

Cosmology models are built directly into the astronomy toolkit, enabling distance calculations for survey data. You can apply these pre-configured models to large datasets to compute cosmological distances and scale factors without external dependencies.