Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

ROSAT All-Sky Survey and SDSS DR5 Sample of X-Ray Emitting AGN

Metadata Updated: August 30, 2025

This table contains further results of a program aimed at yielding ~ 10<sup>4</sup> fully characterized optical identifications of ROSAT X-ray sources. The program employs X-ray data from the ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) and both optical imaging and spectroscopic data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). RASS/SDSS data from 5740 deg<sup>2</sup> of sky spectroscopically covered in SDSS Data Release 5 (DR5) provide an expanded catalog of 7000 confirmed quasars and other active galactic nuclei (AGN) that are probable RASS identifications. Again, in this expanded catalog the identifications as X-ray sources are statistically secure, with only a few percent of the SDSS AGNs likely to be randomly superposed on unrelated RASS X-ray sources. Most identifications continue to be quasars and Seyfert 1 galaxies with 15 < m < 21 and 0.01 < z < 4, but the total sample size has grown to include very substantial numbers of even quite rare AGN, e.g., it now includes several hundreds of candidate X-ray-emitting BL Lac objects and narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies. In addition to exploring rare subpopulations, such a large total sample may be useful when considering correlations between the X-ray and the optical and may also serve as a resource list from which to select the ``best'' object (e.g., the X-ray-brightest AGN of a certain subclass at a preferred redshift or luminosity) for follow-up X-ray spectral or alternate detailed studies. Much more information on the SDSS is available at the project's web site at <a href="http://www.sdss.org/">http://www.sdss.org/</a>;. This table was created by the HEASARC in February 2007 based on the combination of the electronic versions of tables 1 through 6 from the above reference which were obtained from the electronic AJ website. It replaces a previous version containing the results presented by Anderson et al. (2003, AJ, 126, 2209) which were based on a cross-correlation of the RASS with optical data from very early on in the SDSS program, e.g., extending back to the 'Early Data Release' before SDSS photometric calibrations were complete. 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/rassdssagn
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 8fddd081-a361-436d-8805-1fa112953b69
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/rassdssagn.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 7904390196cc6f78191a856ab40ae3984d573082cbb70f936a9b89d0ecbdb367
Source Schema Version 1.1

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.