brutus

Et tu, Brute?

brutus is a Python package for Bayesian inference of stellar properties, distances, and extinctions from photometry. It supports individual star fitting, cluster analysis, and 3D dust mapping.

Documentation: brutus.readthedocs.io

Installation

pip install astro-brutus

Requires Python 3.8+ on Linux, macOS, or Windows with WSL.

Windows users: Due to the healpy dependency, brutus requires WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) on Windows.

Development Install

git clone https://github.com/joshspeagle/brutus.git
cd brutus
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Data Files

Download required stellar models and dust maps:

from brutus import fetch_grids, fetch_isos, fetch_dustmaps

fetch_grids()      # MIST stellar grids
fetch_isos()       # MIST isochrones
fetch_dustmaps()   # 3D dust maps

Data files are also available from the Harvard Dataverse.

Citation

If you use brutus, please cite Speagle et al. (2025).

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Contact

• Author: Joshua S. Speagle (j.speagle@utoronto.ca)
• Issues: GitHub Issues

Acknowledgments

brutus uses MIST stellar evolution models and Bayestar dust maps. We thank the developers for making their data publicly available.