WBHGP20CM - New Catalog of Compact 20cm Sources in the Galactic Plane

Overview

This table contains the New Catalog of Compact Radio (20-cm) Sources in the Galactic Plane of White et al. (2005). Archival data were combined with more recent observations of the Galactic plane using the Very Large Array to create two new catalogs of compact centimetric radio sources. The 20-cm source catalog contained here covers a longitude range from -20 to +120 degrees in Galactic longitude l; the latitude coverage varies from b = +/- 0.8 to +/- 2.7 degrees. The total survey area is about 331 square degrees; coverage is 90% complete at a flux density threshold of about 14 mJy, and over 5000 sources are recorded. The 6-cm catalog (also available in the HEASARC Browse system as the table WBHGP6CM) covers 43 square degrees in the region -10 degrees < l <42 degrees, |b| < 0.4 degrees to a 90% completeness threshold of 2.9 mJy; over 2700 sources are found. Both surveys have an angular resolution of about 6". These catalogs provide a 30% (at 20 cm) to 50% (at 6 cm) increase in the number of high-reliability compact sources in the Galactic plane, as well as greatly improved astrometry, uniformity, and reliability; they should prove useful for comparison with new mid- and far-infrared surveys of the Milky Way.

The images from which this catalog was constructed are available at the MAGPIS web site, http://third.ucllnl.org/gps

Catalog Bibcode

2005AJ....130..586W

References

New catalogs of compact radio sources in the galactic plane.
    White R.L., Becker R.H., Helfand D.J.
   <Astron. J., 130, 586-596 (2005)>
   =2005AJ....130..586W

Provenance

This table was created by the HEASARC in July 2006 based on the combination of CDS tables J/AJ/130/586 table3.dat and table4.dat.

HEASARC Implementation

As noted above, this HEASARC table contains both the primary 20-cm catalog of 5084 compact sources detected at a significance of > 5.5 sigma (which was contained in Table 3 of the published paper) and the faint source catalog of 1835 20-cm sources that were detected at a significance between 5.0 and 5.5 sigma (listed in Table 4 of the paper). The HEASARC has created a new parameter, source_type, which is set to 'Primary' for the former sources and to 'Faint' for the latter sources.

Parameters

Name
The name of the radio source using the '[WBH2005] G' prefix recommended by the Dictionary of Nomenclature of Celestial Objects and based on the Galactic longitude and latitude of the source.

RA
The Right Ascension of the radio source in the selected equinox. This was given in J2000.0 equatorial coordinates to a precision of 0.001 seconds of time in the original table.

Dec
The Declination of the radio source in the selected equinox. This was given in J2000.0 equatorial coordinates to a precision of 0.01 arcseconds in the original table.

LII
The Galactic Longitude of the radio source.

BII
The Galactic Latitude of the radio source.

Sidelobe_Probability
The probability that the source is a sidelobe of a nearby bright object. This field is populated only for the 5.5-sigma catalog sources (source_type = 'Primary'). Overall, the catalog authors estimate that about 10% of the 5.5 sigma catalog sources are sidelobes, whereas roughly 60% of the 5.0 - 5.5 sigma sources (source_type = 'Faint') are likely to be sidelobes.

Flux_20_cm
The peak flux density of the radio source at 20 cm, in mJy.

Int_Flux_20_cm
The integrated flux density of the radio source at 20 cm, in mJy.

Flux_20_cm_Error
The computed RMS in the map at the source position, in mJy.

Major_Axis
The major axis, in arcseconds, derived from an elliptical Gaussian fit to the radio source.

Minor_Axis
The minor axis, in arcseconds, derived from an elliptical Gaussian fit to the radio source.

Position_Angle
The position angle, in degrees, derived from an elliptical Gaussian fit to the radio source.

Field_Name
The name of the field containing the source.

Source_Flag
This source flag parameter has the following values:

      o     = in their original catalog (Zoonematkermani et al. 1990, Cat.
               <J/ApJS/74/181>; Helfand et al. 1992ApJS...80..211H);
      OH    = not continuum sources but instead are detected through their 1611
               MHz OH maser emission (Becker, White & Proctor
               1992AJ....103..544B).

Source_Type
As noted above, this HEASARC table contains both the primary 20-cm catalog of 5084 compact sources detected at a significance of > 5.5 sigma (which was contained in Table 3 of the published paper) and the faint source catalog of 1835 20-cm sources that were detected at a significance between 5.0 and 5.5 sigma (listed in Table 4 of the paper). The HEASARC has created this a new parameter, which is set to 'Primary' for the former sources and to 'Faint' for the latter sources.

Contact Person

Questions regarding the WBHGP20CM database table can be addressed to the HEASARC Help Desk.

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Monday, 16-Sep-2024 17:36:39 EDT