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Magellanic Clouds High-Mass X-Ray Binaries Catalog

Metadata Updated: August 30, 2025

This database table contains a catalog of high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC and LMC). The catalog lists source name(s), coordinates, apparent magnitudes, orbital parameters, and X-ray luminosities for 128 HMXBs, together with the stellar parameters of the components, other characteristic properties and a comprehensive selection of the relevant literature. The aim of this catalog is to provide easy access to the basic information on the X-ray sources and their counterparts in other wavelength ranges (UV, optical, IR, radio). Most of the sources have been identified as Be/X-ray binaries. Some sources, however, are only tentatively identified as HMXBs on the basis of a transient character and/or a hard X-ray spectrum. Further identification in other wavelength bands is needed to finally determine the nature of these sources. In cases where there is some doubt about the high-mass nature of the X-ray binary this is mentioned. Literature published before 1 May 2005 has, as far as possible, been taken into account. Information on the numbers used to code references is available at <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/J/A+A/442/1135/refs.dat">CDS</a>. Individual notes on each HMXB are also available for <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/J/A+A/442/1135/notes1.dat">SMC systems</a> and for <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/J/A+A/442/1135/notes2.dat">LMC systems</a> at the same site. This Browse table contains the combination of 92 HMXBs in the SMC and 36 HMXBs in the LMC which were listed in Tables 1 and 2, respectively, of the published version of this catalog. The HEASARC has added a parameter called cloud_id which can be used to identify which Magellanic Cloud any specified HMXB belongs to (the SMC or the LMC). This database was created by the HEASARC in December 2005 based on <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/J/A+A/442/1135">CDS Catalog J/A+A/442/1135</a>, table1.dat and table2.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 August 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date August 30, 2025
Publisher High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Maintainer
Identifier ivo://nasa.heasarc/maghmxbcat
Data Last Modified 2025-08-27
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 4b229be4-7e8d-4aa3-933c-71a42ac25f49
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/maghmxbcat.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash bea8883a31747c57a80a45d3218161b927deb1c8405857e14ea4c90ff4ded64b
Source Schema Version 1.1

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