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M 31 Disk Chandra PHAT Survey: X-Ray Source Catalog

Metadata Updated: February 6, 2026

The X-ray source populations within galaxies are typically difficult to identify and classify with X-ray data alone. The authors break through this barrier by combining deep new Chandra ACIS-I observations with extensive Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging from the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) of the M 31 disk. They detect 373 X-ray sources down to 0.35-8.0keV flux of 10<sup>-15</sup>erg/cm<sup>-2</sup>/s over 0.4deg<sup>2</sup>, 170 of which are reported for the first time. The authors identify optical counterpart candidates for 188 of the 373 sources, after using the HST data to correct the absolute astrometry of our Chandra imaging to 0.1". While 58 of these 188 are associated with point sources potentially in M 31, over half (107) of the counterpart candidates are extended background galaxies, 5 are star clusters, 12 are foreground stars, and 6 are supernova remnants. Sources with no clear counterpart candidate are most likely to be undetected background galaxies and low-mass X-ray binaries in M 31. The hardest sources in the 1-8keV band tend to be matched to background galaxies. The 58 point sources that are not consistent with foreground stars are bright enough that they could be high-mass stars in M 31; however, all but 8 have optical colors inconsistent with single stars, suggesting that many could be background galaxies or binary counterparts. For point-like counterparts, the authors examine the star formation history of the surrounding stellar populations to look for a young component that could be associated with a high-mass X-ray binary. The associated star formation histories for sources in the catalog are available in the linked table <a href="/W3Browse/chandra/m31phatsfh.html">M31PHATSFH</a>. In 2015 October, the authors observed the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) footprint with Chandra with 7 pointings. The footprints are overlaid on a GALEX NUV image of M 31, along with the corresponding HST coverage, in Figure 1 of the reference paper. At each pointing they observed for about 50ks in VF mode (Chandra ObsID 17008 to 17014 spanning 2015 Oct 06 to 2015 Oct 26). This table was created by the HEASARC in April 2020 based upon the <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/J/ApJS/239/13">CDS Catalog J/ApJS/239/13</a> file table4.dat and table6.dat. 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 February 6, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 6, 2026
Publisher High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Maintainer
Identifier ivo://nasa.heasarc/m31phatcxo
Data Last Modified 2026-02-03
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 d8b2e994-19de-4f84-9d12-36631fdd6b8d
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/m31phatcxo.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 933c86509d55291624ac0c2a3b86a268c6b0b0e928ba36ff1f9c1d7d425a5337
Source Schema Version 1.1

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