Extragalactic X-ray observations - The 2A catalogue and supplementary results from the Ariel 5 sky survey

A status report is given on the Ariel 5 sky survey for X -ray sources at galactic latitude | b | ≽ 10°. The operation of the sky survey instrument (s. s. i.) is briefly reviewed and the production of the recently published 2A catalogue of X -ray sources is described. A remarkably high percentage ( ca . 75%) of the 105 sources in the 2A catalogue have now been identified with extragalactic, or, in a few cases, galactic, counterparts, and this is attributed to the improved location of sources (cf. the earlier 3U catalogue), and the strong correlation with optically bright or outstanding objects. The 2A catalogue and subsequent studies have established active galaxies, especially of the Seyfert type 1, to be a major class of powerful X -ray emitter. Present members of this class, which also includes a number of emission line galaxies, radio galaxies and quasars, are listed and their basic X -ray properties reviewed. The second major class of extragalactic X -ray source, clusters of galaxies, first established with the Uhuru satellite, has been substantially extended by Ariel 5. This work also is briefly reviewed. Finally, additional X -ray data from the s. s. i. (still operative) is being used to revise and add to the 2A catalogue. Several examples of this more recent work are given, together with an estimate of the expected content of the final s. s. i. catalogue when the mission is terminated (now planned for October 1979).

1998 ◽  
Vol 188 ◽  
pp. 465-466
Author(s):  
M. Akiyama ◽  
K. Ohta ◽  
T. Yamada ◽  
Y. Ueda ◽  
T. Takahashi ◽  
...  

To reveal the origin of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB) in the hard band, we are now conducting a wide (~ 7 deg2) and deep (~ 1 × 10−13 erg sec−1 cm−2 in the 2-10 keV band) survey with the ASCA (the ASCA Large Sky Survey, hereafter LSS). We have detected 83 sources above 4 sigma level in the 0.7-10 keV band with the GIS and resolved ~30% of the CXB in the 2-10 keV band into discrete sources (Ueda 1996). AGNs (type 1 and type 2) and clusters of galaxies are expected to be major contributers to these X-ray sources.


1980 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 641-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. Griffiths

It has been just a few years since Type 1 Seyferts were established as a class of X-ray sources with luminosities in the range 1042 - 1045 ergs s-1 by Elvis et al. (1978) using data from the sky survey instrument on Ariel V, and by Tananbaum et al. (1978) using data from UHURU.The average error-box sizes for X-ray sources identified with Type 1 Seyferts in the 2A catalog (Cooke et al. 1978) is ˜ 0.4 sq. degrees, and ˜ 1.0 sq. degrees for those in the 4U catalog (Forman et al. 1978). Improvement in these positions has been made over the past two years by the modulation collimators on board the satellites SAS-3 and HEAO-1. In particular, the HEAO-1 scanning modulation collimator has been used to position a total of 20 X-ray sources, confirming the identification in each case, with the possible exception of Mkn 279 (Dower et al. 1979, Griffiths et al. 1979a). Of the 37 X-ray sources which were discovered prior to the launch of the Einstein Observatory and which have been associated with Type 1 Seyferts, 21 have been positioned to ˜ 1 arc minute, representing an improvement by factors of ˜ 20 to 100 over the previous 2A and 4U error box sizes. Some examples of the error boxes and identifications confirmed with the HEAO-1 scanning modulation collimator are shown in figs. 1 and 2. In fig. 1 both NGC 7213 (Philips 1979) and MCG - 2 - 58 - 22 (Ward et al. 1978) were discovered to be Seyferts by optical spectroscopy of candidate objects in the error regions of the corresponding X-ray sources. NGC 7213 is a Seyfert nucleus in a galaxy of Type SO (Philips 1979). In fig. 2, NGC 931 was likewise discovered to be a Seyfert as a result of its X-ray emission (Ward and Wilson 1978).


Results from the Ariel 5 sky survey instrument relating to the properties and the spatial distribution of extragalactic X-ray sources are discussed. The lg N -lg S relation for sources in the 2A catalogue is consistent with a uniform distribution of sources in Euclidean space. In addition, measure­ments of fluctuations in the X-ray background suggest that the Euclidean form of the source counts can be extrapolated to flux levels at least an order of magnitude fainter than the 2A catalogue limit. Information is also available from the optical identification of 2A sources which, through redshift measurements, enables the X-ray luminosity functions of the two main classes of source, namely clusters of galaxies and active galaxies, to be determined. The luminosity functions can be used to calculate the contribution of clusters of galaxies and active galaxies to the diffuse X-ray background in the 2-10 keV range. It is found that cosmological evolution of one or both populations is required to account for the diffuse X-ray background entirely in terms of the integrated emission from these sources.


1997 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 689-689
Author(s):  
V. Burwitz ◽  
K. Reinsch ◽  
K. Beuermann ◽  
H.-C. Thomas

The V~17.6 mag optical counterpart of the bright, soft, high-galactic latitude X-ray source RX J0512.2–3241 detected during the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, has been identified as a new, asynchronously rotating, magnetic cataclysmic variable (intermediate polar). The X-ray spectrum of RXJ0512–32 is similar to that of polars, it shows a soft component with no intrinsic absorption and a blackbody temperature kTbb~38 eV. From our optical follow-up B and V CCD photometry (cf. Fig. 1) we derive most probable spin and orbital periods of (863.5 ± 0.7) s and (3.45 ± 0.03) h respectively. A lower limit for the distance to the system is d > 740 pc. From this evidence we suggest that RXJ0512-32 is a further member of the ROSAT discovered class of soft X-ray intermediate polars (for details see Burwitz et al., 1996, A&A 310, L25). This still small class of systems (see Haberl and Motch 1995, A&A 297, L37) has X-ray characteristics similar to those of low magnetic field polars and may be their long sought evolutionary progenitors.


1997 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 427-428
Author(s):  
Y. Zhao ◽  
J. Zhong ◽  
J. Wei ◽  
J. Hu ◽  
Q. Li

AbstractWe used the CCD camera and spectrograph of the 2.16-m telescope of Beijing Astronomical Observatory to identify the ROSAT All-Sky survey sources in two 2° Ü 2° fields. Of a total of 16 X-ray sources, we identified 13 of them as follows: two QSOs, two Seyfert galaxies, two active galaxies, two clusters of galaxies, and five late-type stars. Three X-ray sources remained unidentified.


1999 ◽  
Vol 194 ◽  
pp. 306-310
Author(s):  
Q. Yuan ◽  
J. Wu ◽  
K. Huang

This paper presents a test of the luminosity correlation of the X-ray selected radio-loud Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs), based on a large sample constructed by combining our cross-identification of southern sky sources with the radio-loud sources in the northern hemisphere given by Brinkmann et al. (1995). All sources were detected both by the ROSAT All-Sky Survey and the radio surveys at 4.85 GHz. The broad band energy distribution confirms the presence of strong correlations between luminosities in the radio, optical, and X-ray bands which differ for quasars, seyferts, BL Lacs, and radio galaxies. The tight correlations between spectral indices αox and monochromatic luminosities at 5500 Å and 4.85 GHz are also shown.


1996 ◽  
Vol 283 (3) ◽  
pp. 1103-1104 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Ebeling ◽  
W. Voges ◽  
H. Bohringer ◽  
A. C. Edge ◽  
J. P. Huchra ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (14) ◽  
pp. 581-581
Author(s):  
Robert J. Hanisch ◽  
Anatoly A. Suchkov ◽  
Timothy M. Heckman ◽  
Wolfgang H. Voges

We use VO facilities to study AGNs with X-ray emission. We present a sample of 1744 of Type 1 AGNs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 (SDSS DR4) spectroscopic catalog with X-ray counterparts in the White-Giommi-Angelini catalogue (WGACAT) of ROSAT-pspc pointed observations. Of 1744 X-ray sources, 1410 (80.9%) are new AGN identifications. Of 4,574 SDSS DR4 AGNs for which we found radio matches in the catalogue of radio sources from the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty (FIRST) cm survey, 224 turned up in our sample of SDSS X-ray AGN.


2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (H16) ◽  
pp. 669-670
Author(s):  
Richard D. Saxton

AbstractWe review the history of X-ray sky surveys from the early experiments to the catalogues of 105 sources produced by ROSAT, Chandra and XMM-Newton. At bright fluxes the X-ray sky is shared between stars, accreting binaries and extragalactic sources while deeper surveys are dominated by AGN and clusters of galaxies. The X-ray background, found by the earliest missions, has been largely resolved into discrete sources at soft (0.3-2 keV) energies but at higher energies an important fraction still escapes detection. The possible identification of the missing flux with Compton-thick AGN has been probed in recent years by Swift and Integral.Variability seen in objects observed at different epochs has proved to be an excellent discriminator for rare classes of objects. The comparison of ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) and ROSAT pointed observations identified several Novae and high variability AGN as well as initiating the observational study of Tidal Disruption events. More recently the XMM-Newton slew survey, in conjunction with archival RASS data, has detected further examples of flaring objects which have been followed-up in near-real time at other wavelengths.


2002 ◽  
Vol 199 ◽  
pp. 141-148
Author(s):  
T.A. Enßlin

A short review on theoretical implications of non-thermal emission (radio, extreme ultraviolet, high energy X-ray) from the intra-cluster medium is given. The origin of cluster radio halos and cluster radio relics is discussed within the framework of a network of processes producing a non-thermal electron population. Emphasis is given to the role of old, remnant, presently invisible relativistic plasma released by former radio galaxies.


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