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Faint Sky Variability Survey Catalog of Galaxy Clusters and Rich Groups

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

The Faint Sky Variability Survey Catalog of Galaxy Clusters and Rich Groups contains a a large sample of 598 galaxy clusters and rich groups discovered in the data of the Faint Sky Variability Survey (FSVS). The clusters have been identified using a fully automated, semi-parametric technique based on a maximum likelihood approach applied to Voronoi tessellation, and enhanced by color discrimination. The sample covers a wide range of richness, has a density of ~28 clusters per square degree, and spans a range of estimated redshifts of 0.05 < z < 0.9 with mean <z> = 0.345. Assuming the presence of a cluster red sequence, the uncertainty of the estimated cluster redshifts is assessed to be sigma ~ 0.03. Containing over 100 clusters with z > 0.6, the catalog contributes substantially to the current total of optically-selected, intermediate-redshift clusters, and complements the existing, usually X-ray selected, samples. The FSVS fields are accessible for observation throughout the whole year, making them particularly suited for large follow-up programs. The construction of this FSVS Cluster Catalogue completes a fundamental component of the authors' continuing program to investigate the environments of quasars and the chemical evolution of galaxies. The present table contains the list of all clusters with their basic parameters. This table was created by the HEASARC in July 2006 based on the table cluster_catalogue.txt copied from the first author's website <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100318044103/www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~iks/FSVScatalogue/">https://web.archive.org/web/20100318044103/www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~iks/FSVScatalogue/</a>; (no longer available, unfortunately). Refer instead to <a href="https://cdsarc.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/369/1334">https://cdsarc.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/369/1334</a>; for the data files and to <a href="https://www.noao.edu/survey-archives/fsvs/">https://www.noao.edu/survey-archives/fsvs/</a>; for additional information about the survey. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025
Publisher High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Maintainer
Identifier ivo://nasa.heasarc/fsvsclustr
Data Last Modified 2025-09-10
Category Astrophysics
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id a72f16f8-ce8b-4cf5-9e2f-967e59668ccb
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/fsvsclustr.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash afbc5234c119a4fa9f16eea9d95cd69b0fc5a0e1468c5461a7a157d32399f9ce
Source Schema Version 1.1

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