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Orion Flanking Fields Chandra X-Ray Point Source Catalog

Metadata Updated: August 30, 2025

This table contains the results of Chandra observations of two flanking fields (FFs) in Orion outside the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), in the form of a catalog of 417 sources, which includes X-ray luminosity, optical and infrared photometry, and X-ray variability information. 91 variable sources were found, 33 of which have flarelike light curves, and 11 of which have a pattern of a steady increase or decrease over a 10 hour period. The optical and infrared photometry for the stars identified as X-ray sources are consistent with most of these objects being pre-main-sequence stars with ages younger than 10 Myr. The two flanking fields in Orion were observed with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) detector on board the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The north Orion flanking field (NOFF) is centered at a J2000 RA and Declination of 05:35:19, -04:48:15, which is about 36' (~5 pc, at a distance of 470 pc) north of the Trapezium cluster and was observed on 2002 August 26 with a total exposure time of 48.8 ks. The south Orion flanking field (SOFF), centered at a J2000 RA and Declination of 05:35:06, -05:40:48, which is about 17' (~ 2.5pc, at a distance of 470 pc) south of the Trapezium cluster, was observed on 2002 September 6 with a total exposure time of 47.9 ks. The data analysis for these observations was performed in the same manner as described in Ramirez et al. (2004, AJ, 127, 2659) for a similar observation of a field in NGC 2264, which should be consulted for the full details. (See also the help file for the HEASARC version of the catalog from the latter reference available at /W3Browse/chandra/ngc2264cxo.html ). This table was created by the HEASARC in February 2007 based on the CDS table J/AJ/128/787, files table1.dat, table3.dat and table4.dat. It does not include the results from the spectral analysis of 44 bright X-ray sources which were presented in Table 2 of the 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 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/orionffcxo
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 3993e7d1-b318-4ce9-8336-0ea8d8da63a4
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/orionffcxo.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 72f48caa5a91a956abfc0c65b709705a876e76a56f8974d27d0a8f53dfc3ab61
Source Schema Version 1.1

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