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NGC 300 Chandra X-Ray Point Source Catalog

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

This table contains the source catalog from a new Chandra ACIS-I observation of the nearby (2.0 Mpc) SA(s)d spiral galaxy NGC 300 which was obtained as part of the Chandra Local Volume Survey (CLVS). This 63-ks exposure covers ~88% of the D<sub>25</sub> isophote (R ~ 6.3 kpc) and yields a catalog of 95 X-ray point sources detected at high significance down to a limiting unabsorbed 0.35-8 keV luminosity of ~ 10<sup>36</sup> erg/s. Sources were cross-correlated with a previous XMM-Newton catalog, and the authors find 75 "X-ray transient candidate" sources that were detected by one observatory, but not the other. They derive an X-ray scale length of 1.7 +/- 0.2 kpc and a recent star formation rate of 0.12 M<sub>sun</sub>/yr in excellent agreement with optical observations. Deep, multi-color imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope, covering ~ 32% of this Chandra field, was used to search for optical counterparts to the X-ray sources, and the authors have developed a new source classification scheme to determine which sources are likely X-ray binaries, supernova remnants, and background active galactic nucleus candidates. In the reference paper, the authors present the X-ray luminosity functions (XLFs) at different X-ray energies, and find the total NGC 300 X-ray point-source population to be consistent with other late-type galaxies hosting young stellar populations (<~ 50 Myr). They find that the XLF of sources associated with older stellar populations has a steeper slope than the XLF of X-ray sources coinciding with young stellar populations, consistent with theoretical predictions. NGC 300 was observed on 2010 September 25 for 63 ks using ACIS-I during the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Cycle 12, observation ID 12238. The source detection strategy that was used is described in Section 2.3 of the reference paper. ACIS-Extract (AE) was run a final time on the source list that was produces after an initial run of wavdetect followed by several iterations of AE, and the Poisson probability of not being a source (pns) value was computed in each of the following nine energy bands: 0.5 - 8.0, 0.5 - 2.0, 2.0 - 8.0, 0.5 - 1.0, 1.0 - 2.0, 2.0 - 4.0, 4.0 - 8.0, 0.35 - 1.0 and 0.35 - 8.0 keV. To be included in the final NGC 300 catalog, a source was required to have a pns value less than 4 x 10<sup>-6</sup> in any of the nine energy bands; if only the 0.35 - 8 keV band were considered, ~4% of significant sources would have been lost. The final CLVS source catalog for NGC 300 contains 95 sources. This table was initially created by the HEASARC in September 2014 based on <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/J/ApJ/758/15/">CDS Catalog J/ApJ/758/15/</a> files table4.dat, table5.dat, table6.dat and table7.dat containing the X-ray properties of the 95 Chandra point sources found in this study. The information on the optical counterparts to (some of) the Chandra X-ray sources and on the X-ray point source classification (presented in Tables 16 and 17, respectively, of the reference paper) is not included herein. It was updated in September 2015 to include the unabsorbed 0.35-8.0 keV energy fluxes (in the parameter herein called b4_flux) from the second reference paper. 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/ngc300cxo
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 7a559bff-fc8c-473f-b121-5ea633f0a07a
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/ngc300cxo.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 2e9775a3515f87a43bbb45491ffc1baaae5d925367f3f72c71e10d0927051f7c
Source Schema Version 1.1

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