The unWISE Catalog contains the positions and fluxes of roughly two billion objects observed by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) over the full sky. The unWISE Catalog has two advantages over the existing WISE catalog (AllWISE): first, it is based on significantly deeper imaging, and second, it features improved modeling of crowded regions. The deeper imaging used in the unWISE Catalog comes from the coaddition of all publicly available 3-5 micron WISE imaging, including that from the ongoing NEOWISE-Reactivation mission, thereby increasing the total exposure time by a factor of 5 relative to AllWISE. At these depths, even at high Galactic latitudes many sources are blended with their neighbors; accordingly, the unWISE analysis simultaneously fits thousands of sources to obtain accurate photometry. The unWISE catalog detects sources at 5 sigma roughly 0.7 magnitudes fainter than the AllWISE catalog and more accurately models millions of faint sources in the Galactic plane, enabling a wealth of Galactic and extragalactic science. In particular, relative to AllWISE, unWISE doubles the number of galaxies detected between redshifts 0 and 1 and triples the number between redshifts 1 and 2, cataloging more than half a billion galaxies over the whole sky.
We spent a solid overview of the infrared and visual images 18020 2MFGC galaxies selected in the automatic mode of 1.64 million. Extended objects XSC-2MASS catalog with respect infrared axes, a/b>=3. This work is aimed at excluding "spurious" objects from the list of flattened galaxies. Browse more than 80000 images in different filters were able to identify 1512 (8.4% of the total) of such objects. Found duplicate in 2MASS measurements of 23 galaxies with, respectively, two rooms 2MFGC, and 3 flat galaxy, not accounted for in other directories and in close proximity with the three "spurious" galaxies. The main part of the excluded facilities accounted for magnitudes less Ks=13mag. They are characterized by small angular size, low surface brightness and the concentration index. Exception objects identified significantly reduced the spread of values in the two-dimensional distribution. Results of work in the form of notes will be placed in the astronomical database VizieR, NED, HYPERLEDA.
We have refined the census of stars and brown dwarfs in the Upper Sco association (~10Myr, ~145pc) by (1) updating the selection of candidate members from our previous survey to include the high-precision astrometry from the second data release of Gaia, (2) obtaining spectra of a few hundred candidate members to measure their spectral types and verify their youth, and (3) assessing the membership (largely with Gaia astrometry) of 2020 stars toward Upper Sco that show evidence of youth in this work and previous studies. We arrive at a catalog of 1761 objects that are adopted as members of Upper Sco. The distribution of spectral types among the adopted members is similar to those in other nearby star-forming regions, indicating a similar initial mass function. In previous studies, we have compiled mid-infrared photometry from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and the Spitzer Space Telescope for members of Upper Sco and used those data to identify the stars that show evidence of circumstellar disks; we present the same analysis for our new catalog of members. As in earlier work, we find that the fraction of members with disks increases with lower stellar masses, ranging from <~10% for >1M{sun} to ~22% for 0.01-0.3M{sun}. Finally, we have estimated the relative ages of Upper Sco and other young associations using their sequences of low-mass stars in M_G_RP__ versus G_BP_-G_RP_. This comparison indicates that Upper Sco is a factor of two younger than the {beta}Pic association (21-24Myr) according to both nonmagnetic and magnetic evolutionary models.
We present a case study in which we used a novel method to identify red supergiant (RSG) candidates in NGC 6822 based on their 1.6um H-bump. We collected 32 bands of photometric data for NGC 6822 ranging from the optical to the mid-infrared (MIR), derived from Gaia, PS1, LGGS, VHS, UKIRT, IRSF, HAWK-I, Spitzer, and WISE. Using the theoretical spectra from MARCS, we demonstrate that there is a prominent difference around 1.6um (H-bump) between targets with high and low surface gravity (HSG and LSG). Taking advantage of this feature, we identify efficient color-color diagrams of rzH (r-z versus z-H) and rzK (r-z versus z-K) to separate HSG (mostly foreground dwarfs) and LSG targets (mainly background red giant stars, asymptotic giant branch stars, and RSGs) from crossmatching of optical and near-infrared (NIR) data. Moreover, synthetic photometry from ATLAS9 gives similar results. We further separated RSG candidates from the remaining LSG candidates as determined by the H-bump method by using semi-empirical criteria on NIR color-magnitude diagrams, where both the theoretic cuts and morphology of the RSG population are considered. This separation produced 323 RSG candidates. The simulation of foreground stars with Besancon models also indicates that our selection criteria are largely free from the contamination of Galactic giants. In addition to the H-bump method, we used the traditional BVR method (B-V versus V-R) as a comparison and/or supplement by applying a slightly aggressive cut to select as many RSG candidates as possible (358 targets). Furthermore, the Gaia astrometric solution was used to constrain the sample, where 181 and 193 targets were selected with the H-bump and BVR method, respectively. The percentages of selected targets in the two methods are similar at ~60%, indicating a comparable accuracy of the two methods. In total, there are 234 RSG candidates after combining targets from the two methods, and 140 (~60%) of them are in common. The final RSG candidates are in the expected locations on the mid-infrared color-magnitude diagram with [3.6]-[4.5]<~0 and J-[8.0]~1.0. The spatial distribution is also coincident with the far-ultraviolet-selected star formation regions, suggesting that the selection is reasonable and reliable. We indicate that our method can also be used to identify other LSG targets, such as red giants and asymptotic giant branch stars, and it can also be applied to most of the nearby galaxies by using recent large-scale ground-based surveys. Future ground- and space-based facilities may promote its application beyond the Local Group.
This work presents the main ultraviolet (UV) and far-infrared (FIR) properties of two samples of nearby galaxies selected from the GALEX ({lambda}=2315{AA}, hereafter NUV) and IRAS ({lambda}=60{mu}m) surveys, respectively. They are built in order to obtain detection at both wavelengths for most of the galaxies. Star formation rate (SFR) estimators based on the UV and FIR emissions are compared. Systematic differences are found between the SFR estimators for individual galaxies based on the NUV fluxes corrected for dust attenuation and on the total IR luminosity.
In this work, we present a study of 207 quasars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar catalogs and the Herschel Stripe 82 survey. Quasars within this sample are high-luminosity quasars with a mean bolometric luminosity of 10^46.4^erg/s. The redshift range of this sample is within z Herschel-SPIRE bands, the quasar sample is complete yet highly biased. Based on the multi-wavelength photometric observation data, we conducted a spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting through UV to FIR. Parameters such as active galactic nucleus (AGN) luminosity, far-IR (FIR) luminosity, stellar mass, as well as many other AGN and galaxy properties are deduced from the SED fitting results. The mean star formation rate (SFR) of the sample is 419M_{sun}_/yr and the mean gas mass is ~10^11.3^M_{sun}_. All of these results point to an IR luminous quasar system. Compared with star formation main sequence (MS) galaxies, at least 80 out of 207 quasars are hosted by starburst galaxies. This supports the statement that luminous AGNs are more likely to be associated with major mergers. The SFR increases with the redshift up to z=2. It is correlated with the AGN bolometric luminosity, where L_FIR_{propto}L_Bol_^0.46+/-0.03^. The AGN bolometric luminosity is also correlated with the host galaxy mass and gas mass. Yet the correlation between L_FIR_ and L_Bol_ has higher significant level, implies that the link between AGN accretion and the SFR is more primal. The M_BH_/M_*_ ratio of our sample is 0.02, higher than the value 0.005 in the local universe. It might indicate an evolutionary trend of the M_BH_/M_*_ scaling relation.
We present a list of 552 sources with suspected variability, based on a comparison of mid-infrared photometry from the GLIMPSE I and Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) surveys, which were carried out nearly a decade apart. We were careful to address issues such as the difference in resolution and sensitivity between the two surveys, as well as the differences in the spectral responses of the instruments. We selected only sources where the IRAC 8.0um and MSX 8.28um fluxes differ by more than a factor of 2, in order to minimize contamination from sources where the difference in fluxes at 8um is due to a strong 10um silicate feature. We present a subset of 40 sources for which additional evidence suggests variability, using 2MASS and MIPSGAL data. Based on a comparison with the variability flags in the IRAS and MSX point-source catalogs we estimate that at least a quarter of the 552 sources and at least half of the 40 sources in the subset are truly variable. In addition, we tentatively confirm the variability of one source using multiepoch IRAS LRS spectra. We suggest that most of the sources in our list are likely to be asymptotic giant branch stars.
We identify 85 variable galaxies in the GOODS North and South fields using five epochs of Hubble Space Telescope Advance Camera for Survey V-band (F606W) images spanning 6 months. The variables are identified through significant flux changes in the galaxy's nucleus and represent ~2% of the survey galaxies. With the aim of studying the active galaxy population in the GOODS fields, we compare the variability-selected sample with X-ray and mid-IR active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates. Forty-nine percent of the variables are associated with X-ray sources identified in the 2Ms Chandra surveys. Twenty-four percent of X-ray sources likely to be AGNs are optical variables and this percentage increases with decreasing hardness ratio of the X-ray emission. Stacking of the non-X-ray-detected variables reveals marginally significant soft X-ray emission. Forty-eight percent of mid-IR power-law sources are optical variables, all but one of which is also X-ray detected. Thus, about half of the optical variables are associated with either X-ray or mid-IR power-law emission. The slope of the power-law fit through the Spitzer IRAC bands indicates that two-thirds of the variables have BLAGN-like spectral energy distributions. Among those galaxies spectroscopically identified as AGNs, we observe variability in 74% of broad-line AGNs and 15% of NLAGNs. The variables are found in galaxies extending to z~3.6.
The paper develops a method for identification of very cold C-rich circumstellar envelopes (CSEs) in IR regions colder than region VII (i.e., larger value of IRAS flux ratio S25/S12), by reviewing the different criteria and by identifying C-rich CSEs in a sample of 228 bright IRAS sources. By using the results of OH surveys and catalogs together with the results of additional HCN/CO millimeter observations performed on critical classes of objects, a C/O classification is proposed for 94 percent of the sources with a good probability. It is shown that the low-resolution spectra by themselves are a reasonable and easy way to identify C-rich late AGB CSEs. For post-AGB object with cold CSEs, HCN and OH observations or visible/near IR spectroscopy are necessary.
We have extended and refined the existing young stellar object (YSO) catalogs for the Orion A molecular cloud, the closest massive star-forming region to Earth. This updated catalog is driven by the large spatial coverage (18.3deg^2^, ~950pc^2^), seeing limited resolution (~0.7''), and sensitivity (K_s_<19mag) of the ESO-VISTA near-infrared survey of the Orion A cloud (VISION). Combined with archival mid- to far-infrared data, the VISTA data allow for a refined and more robust source selection. We estimate that among previously known protostars and pre-main-sequence stars with disks, source contamination levels (false positives) are at least ~6.4% and ~2.3%, respectively, mostly due to background galaxies and nebulosities. We identify 274 new YSO candidates using VISTA/Spitzer based selections within previously analyzed regions, and VISTA/WISE based selections to add sources in the surroundings, beyond previously analyzed regions. The WISE selection method recovers about 59% of the known YSOs in Orion A's low-mass star-forming part L1641, which shows what can be achieved by the all-sky WISE survey in combination with deep near-infrared data in regions without the influence of massive stars. The new catalog contains 2980 YSOs, which were classified based on the de-reddened mid-infrared spectral index into 188 protostars, 185 flat-spectrum sources, and 2607 pre-main-sequence stars with circumstellar disks. We find a statistically significant difference in the spatial distribution of the three evolutionary classes with respect to regions of high dust column-density, confirming that flat-spectrum sources are at a younger evolutionary phase compared to Class IIs, and are not a sub-sample seen at particular viewing angles.
