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ROSAT PSPC 400 Square Degree Galaxy Cluster Catalog

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

This is a catalog of galaxy clusters detected in a new ROSAT PSPC survey. The survey is optimized to sample, at high redshifts, the mass range corresponding to T > 5 keV clusters at z = 0. Technically, our survey is the extension of the 160 square degree survey (160d, the HEASARC Browse table called ROSGALCLUS). The authors use the same detection algorithm, thus preserving the high quality of the resulting sample; the main difference is a significant increase in sky coverage. The new survey covers 397 square degrees and is based on 1610 high Galactic latitude ROSAT PSPC pointings, virtually all of the pointed ROSAT data that were suitable for the detection of distant clusters. The search volume for X-ray luminous clusters within z < 1 exceeds that of the entire local universe (z < 0.1). The authors detected 287 extended X-ray sources with fluxes f_x > 1.4 x 10<sup>-13</sup> erg s<sup>-1</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup> in the 0.5 - 2 keV energy band, of which 266 (93%) are optically confirmed as galaxy clusters, groups or individual elliptical galaxies. The paper from which this table is extracted provides a description of the input data, the statistical calibration of the survey via Monte Carlo simulations, and the catalog of detected clusters. The authors also therein compare the basic results with those from previous, smaller area surveys and find good agreement for the logN - log S distribution and the local X-ray luminosity function. This sample clearly shows a decrease in the number density for the most luminous clusters at z > 0.3. The comparison of these ROSAT-derived fluxes with the accurate Chandra measurements for a subset of high-redshift clusters demonstrates the validity of the 400 square degree survey's statistical calibration. This Browse table contains the main cluster catalog (Table 4 of the reference paper) which comprises 242 serendipitously detected clusters of galaxies. It does not include 24 clusters within a redshift of 0.01 of the redshift of the target of the ROSAT observation (given in Table 5 of the reference paper), as these latter are not entirely serendipitous, 5 noncluster extended sources (given in Table 6 of the reference paper), nor 16 likely false X-ray detections (given in Table 7 of the reference paper). This table was created by the HEASARC in December 2007 based on the machine-readable version of Table 4 (the 'Cluster Catalog') obtained from the electronic ApJ website. 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 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/ros400gcls
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 625f15c4-75a1-4bec-8245-574490335670
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/ros400gcls.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 701a6608015ec5b1d79229ddce38f4ad743433b208d57d3eb69ce87abdbdfa20
Source Schema Version 1.1

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