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M 87 Chandra X-Ray Point Source Catalog

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

The ACIS instrument on board the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has been used to carry out the first systematic study of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) in M 87 (NGC 4486), the giant elliptical galaxy near the dynamical center of the Virgo Cluster. These images - with a total exposure time of 154 ks - are the deepest X-ray observations obtained as of 2004 of M 87. The authors identified 174 X-ray point sources, (contained in this Browse table) of which ~ 150 are likely LMXBs. This LMXB catalog was combined with deep F475W and F850LP images taken with ACS on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) (as part of the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey) to examine the connection between LMXBs and globular clusters in M87. Of the 1688 globular clusters in the authors' catalog, a fraction f<sub>X</sub> = 3.6% +/- 0.5% contain an LMXB. M 87 (NGC 4486) was observed with the Chandra Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) for 121 ks on 2002 July 5-6. In this table, only the S3 chip data are used. The data were processed following the CIAO data reduction threads, including a correction for charge transfer inefficiency (CTI). In addition, the authors used 38 ks of archival ACIS observations of M 87 taken on 2000 July 29. These data were processed in a fashion similar to the 2002 July data, except that no CTI correction was possible because the data were telemetered in graded mode. All reductions were carried out with CIAO, version 2.3, coupled with CALDB, version 2.21. In order to combine the event files into a single image for point-source detection, the authors obtained relative offsets by matching the celestial coordinates of two X-ray point sources. The relative offset was ~ 0.5". The total exposure time of the co-added image, excluding four background flares totaling ~ 2.5 ks, was 154 ks. This table was created by the HEASARC in March 2007 based on the CDS table J/ApJ/613/279, file table1.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.

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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/m87cxo
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 cd77482d-cfd2-431f-8ebe-1f643a962328
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/m87cxo.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash ee2b28b52ebe760493eb6bfd00debc08c26a4a8659dd55b839b16220b7482da7
Source Schema Version 1.1

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