J/A+A/682/A153ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/682/A153doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.36820153CDSDuplancic F.Alonso S.Coldwell G.Galdeano D.Minniti D.Fernandez J.,Mesa V.Perez N.Pereyra L.Pavesich F.2024-11-28T20:06:18Z2024-02-16T09:19:12ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frgalaxiesphotometryinfrared-sourcescatalogsinfrared-photometryThe location of the Solar System constrains the detection of extragalactic sources beyond the Milky Way plane. The optical observations are hampered in the so-called Zone of Avoidance (ZOA) where stellar crowding and Galactic absorption are severe. Observations at longer wavelengths are needed to discover new background galaxies and complete the census in the ZOA. The goal of this work is to identify galaxies behind the Milky Way Bulge using near-infrared (NIR) data from the VISTA Variables in Via Lactea (VVV) survey. To this end we made use of different VISTA Science Archive (VSA) tools in order to extract relevant information from more than 32 billion catalogued sources in the VVV Bulge region. We find that initial photometric restriction on sources from VSA vvvSource table combined with restrictions on star-galaxy separation parameters obtained from Source Extractor is a successful strategy to achieve acceptable levels of contamination (60%) and a high completeness (75%) in the construction of a galaxy target sample. To decontaminate the initial target sample from Galactic sources our methodology also incorporates the visual inspection of false colour RGB images, a crucial quality control which was carried out following a specifically defined procedure. Under this methodology we find 14480 galaxy candidates in the VVV Bulge region making this sample the largest catalogue to date in the ZOA. Moreover these new sources provide a fresh picture of the Universe hidden behind the curtain of stars, dust and gas in the unexplored Milky Way Bulge region. The results from this work further demonstrate the potential of the VVV/VVVX survey to find and study a large number of galaxies and extragalactic structures obscured by the Milky Way, enlightening our knowledge of the Universe in this challenging and impressive region of the sky.2024A&A...682A.153Dhttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/682/A153CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicerelated-toJ/A+A/550/A42 : Extinction map towards the Galactic bulge (Chen+, 2013)https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/682/A153https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/682/A153http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/682/A153https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/682/A153https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/682/A153http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/682/A153GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/A+A/682/A153/catalog (Catalogue of galaxy candidates behind the VVV Milky Way Bulge)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/682/A153/catalog?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/682/A153/catalog?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/682/A153/catalog?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true278.83471-25.935550.0055555555555555563/448 4/1796 1798-1799 5/7190-7191 7210-7211 7214 7220-7221 7226 7230 7234 7240-7242 7264 7266 7301 7312-7313 7317 7319 10583 10589-10591 10619-10620 10622-10623 11946 6/28754-28755 28758-28759 28804-28805 28816-28817 28820-28821 28823 28833-28835 28837-28838 28861-28866 28868-28870 28888 28892-28893 28898 28910-28911 28924 28926-28927 28940 28942-28943 28972-28974 29060 29062 29185 29188-29189 29200-29201 29261 29266-29267 29272-29273 42325-42327 42353 42355 42448-42449 42452-42453 42469-42471 42485-42487 42837 47788 47790-47791 47802-47803 47806-47807 478507.952274030004205e-20 1.0188844282367877e-19https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/A+A/682/A153?format=asciiInfrareddefaultJ/A+A/682/A153/catalogCatalogue of galaxy candidates behind the VVV Milky Way BulgerecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintSourceUnique ID over entire VSAmeta.id;meta.mainRAJ2000Right Ascension J2000 (degrees)degpos.eq.ra;meta.mainindexedDEJ2000Declination J2000 (degrees)degpos.eq.dec;meta.mainindexedZmagApAperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Zmagphot.mag;em.opt.Ifloate_ZmagApError Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Zmagstat.errorfloatYmagApAperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Ymagphot.mag;em.IR.Jfloate_YmagApError Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Ymagstat.errorfloatJmagApAperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Jmagphot.mag;em.IR.Jfloate_JmagApError Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Jmagstat.errorfloatHmagApAperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Hmagphot.mag;em.IR.Hfloate_HmagApError Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Hmagstat.errorfloatKsmagApAperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Ksmagphot.mag;em.IR.Kfloate_KsmagApError Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Ksmagstat.errorfloatKsmagTotTotal magnitude in Ks (1)magphot.mag;em.IR.Kfloate_KsmagTotError total magnitude in Ksmagstat.errorfloatAKsExtinction coefficient in Ks (2)magobs.atmos.extinctionfloatR[1/16.8] Half-light radius (3)arcsecphys.angSizefloatCS[0/0.5] Stellarity parameter (4)src.class.starGalaxyfloat