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XTE All-Sky Slew Survey Catalog

Metadata Updated: August 30, 2025

The Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) All-Sky Survey Slew Catalog contains the results of a serendipitous hard X-ray (3 - 20 keV), nearly all-sky (|b|>10 degrees) survey based on observations by RXTE's Proportional Counter Array (PCA) which were performed during satellite reorientations in the period 1996 - 2002. The survey is 80% (90%) complete to a 4-sigma limiting flux of ~1.8 (2.5)x10<sup>-11</sup> erg/s/cm<sup>2</sup> in the 3 - 20 keV band. The achieved sensitivity in the 3 - 8 keV and 8 - 20 keV subbands is similar to and an order of magnitude higher than that of the previously record HEAO-1 A1 and HEAO-1 A4 all-sky surveys, respectively. A combined 7 x 10<sup>3</sup> square degree area of the sky is sampled to flux levels below 10<sup>-11</sup> erg/s/cm<sup>2</sup> (3 - 20 keV). In total 294 sources are detected and localized to better than ~1 degree; 236 (80%) of these can be confidently associated with a known astrophysical object; 22 of these sources have multiple counterparts (17 have 2 counterparts and 5 have 3 counterparts) with which they have been identified, and as these are listed as separate entries, there are 321 entries in this table. 35 detected sources remain unidentified, although for 12 of these we report a likely soft X-ray counterpart from the ROSAT all-sky survey bright source catalog. Of the reliably identified sources, 63 have a local origin (Milky Way, LMC or SMC), 64 are clusters of galaxies and 100 are active galactic nuclei (AGN). The fact that the unidentified X-ray sources have hard spectra suggests that the majority of them are AGN, including highly obscured ones (hydrogen column density > 10<sup>23</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup>). This dataset enabled the authors to present for the first time a log N - log S diagram for extragalactic sources above 4 x 10<sup>-12</sup> erg/s/cm<sup>2</sup> at 8 - 20 keV. This database table was created by the HEASARC in May 2004 based on <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/J/A+A/418/927">CDS Catalog J/A+A/418/927</a>. 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/xteasscat
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 bfe83bd9-55db-497c-9709-374e6e88d117
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/xteasscat.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 0927d698705566b18812e595ec18c747fabe5e0407332022cfe04f12bada475f
Source Schema Version 1.1

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