The Chandra Source Catalog
Abstract
The Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) is a general purpose virtual X-ray astrophysics facility that provides access to a carefully selected set of generally useful quantities for individual X-ray sources, and is designed to satisfy the needs of a broad-based group of scientists, including those who may be less familiar with astronomical data analysis in the X-ray regime. The first release of the CSC includes information about 94,676 distinct X-ray sources detected in a subset of public ACIS imaging observations from roughly the first eight years of the Chandra mission. This release of the catalog includes point and compact sources with observed spatial extents <~ 30''. The catalog (1) provides access to the best estimates of the X-ray source properties for detected sources, with good scientific fidelity, and directly supports scientific analysis using the individual source data; (2) facilitates analysis of a wide range of statistical properties for classes of X-ray sources; and (3) provides efficient access to calibrated observational data and ancillary data products for individual X-ray sources, so that users can perform detailed further analysis using existing tools. The catalog includes real X-ray sources detected with flux estimates that are at least 3 times their estimated 1 sigma uncertainties in at least one energy band, while maintaining the number of spurious sources at a level of <~ 1 false source per field for a 100 ks observation. For each detected source, the CSC provides commonly tabulated quantities, including source position, extent, multi-band fluxes, hardness ratios, and variability statistics, derived from the observations in which the source is detected. In addition to these traditional catalog elements, for each X-ray source the CSC includes an extensive set of file-based data products that can be manipulated interactively.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1005.4665,
title = {The Chandra Source Catalog},
author = {Ian N. Evans and Francis A. Primini and Kenny J. Glotfelty and Craig S. Anderson and Nina R. Bonaventura and Judy C. Chen and John E. Davis and Stephen M. Doe and Janet D. Evans and Giuseppina Fabbiano and Elizabeth C. Galle and Danny G. Gibbs and John D. Grier and Roger M. Hain and Diane M. Hall and Peter N. Harbo and Xiangqun and He and John C. Houck and Margarita Karovska and Vinay L. Kashyap and Jennifer Lauer and Michael L. McCollough and Jonathan C. McDowell and Joseph B. Miller and Arik W. Mitschang and Douglas L. Morgan and Amy E. Mossman and Joy S. Nichols and Michael A. Nowak and David A. Plummer and Brian L. Refsdal and Arnold H. Rots and Aneta Siemiginowska and Beth A. Sundheim and Michael S. Tibbetts and David W. Van Stone and Sherry L. Winkelman and Panagoula Zografou},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.4665},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
To appear in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 53 pages, 27 figures