Globular Cluster Systems of Galaxies Catalog

Globular Cluster Systems of Galaxies Catalog GCSCAT ivo://nasa.heasarc/gcscat NASA/GSFC HEASARC Harris et al. 2026-10-09 NASA/GSFC HEASARC help desk heasarc-vo at athena.gsfc.nasa.gov Survey Source This table contains a catalog of 422 galaxies with published measurements of their globular cluster (GC) populations. Of these, 248 are E galaxies, 93 are S0 galaxies, and 81 are spirals or irregulars. Among various correlations of the total number of GCs with other global galaxy properties, the authors find that the number of globular clusters NGC correlates well though nonlinearly with the dynamical mass of the galaxy bulge Mdyn = 4 sigma _e_2 Re/G, where sigmae is the central velocity dispersion and Re the effective radius of the galaxy light profile. In their paper, the authors also present updated versions of the GC specific frequency SN and specific mass SM versus host galaxy luminosity and baryonic mass. These graphs exhibit the previously known U-shape: highest SN or SM values occur for either dwarfs or supergiants, but in the mid-range of galaxy size (109 - 1010 Lsun) the GC numbers fall along a well-defined baseline value of SN ~= 1 or SM = 0.1, similar among all galaxy types. Along with other recent discussions, the authors suggest that this trend may represent the effects of feedback, which systematically inhibited early star formation at either very low or very high galaxy mass, but which had its minimum effect for intermediate masses. Their results strongly reinforce recent proposals that GC formation efficiency appears to be most nearly proportional to the galaxy halo mass Mhalo. The mean "absolute" efficiency ratio for GC formation that the authors derive from the catalog data is MGCS/Mhalo = 6 x 10-5. They suggest that the galaxy-to-galaxy scatter around this mean value may arise in part because of differences in the relative timing of GC formation versus field-star formation. Finally, they find that an excellent empirical predictor of total GC population for galaxies of all luminosities is NGC ~ (Re sigmae)1.3, a result consistent with fundamental plane scaling relations. This table was created by the HEASARC in February 2014 based on an electronic version of Table 1 from the reference paper which was obtained from the ApJ web site. A duplicate entry for NGC 4417 was removed in June 2019. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC . 2013ApJ...772...82H https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/gcscat.html Catalog Research served-by HEASARC TAP https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/xamin/vo/cone?showoffsets&table=gcscat& GET text/xml 180 99999 true 9.4365278 -76.6263889 0.0833333333333333 https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/xamin/vo/tap https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/W3Browse/getvotable.pl?name=gcscat GET text/xml https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/W3Browse/w3query.pl?tablehead=name=heasarc_gcscat&Action=More+Options&Action=Parameter+Search&ConeAdd=1 GALAXY CATALOG 0.0833333333333333 Optical public gcscat Globular Cluster Systems of Galaxies Catalog name Galaxy Identifier meta.id;meta.main char nullable ra Right Ascension degree pos.eq.ra;meta.main double nullable dec Declination degree pos.eq.dec;meta.main double nullable morph_type Morphology Type src.morph.type char nullable "distance" NED Distance Mpc pos.distance double nullable distance_error Uncertainty in Distance Mpc stat.error;pos.distance double nullable num_glob_clust_limit Limit Flag for Number of Globular Clusters meta.code;stat.max char nullable num_glob_clust Number of Globular Clusters meta.number double nullable num_glob_clust_error Uncertainty in Number of Globular Clusters stat.error double nullable abs_kmag Absolute K Band Magnitude mag phys.magAbs;em.IR.K double nullable effective_radius Effective Radius kpc phys.size.radius double nullable log_smbh_mass_pos_err Upper Uncertainty for Logarithm of Central Supermassive Black Hole Mass log(Solar_Mass) stat.error;phys.mass double nullable abs_kmag_error Uncertainty in Absolute K Band Magnitude mag stat.error;phys.magAbs;em.IR.K double nullable log_dyn_mass_error Uncertainty in Logarithm of Dynamical Mass log(Solar_Mass) stat.error;phys.mass double nullable log_smbh_mass_neg_err Lower Uncertainty for Logarithm of Central Supermassive Black Hole Mass log(Solar_Mass) stat.error;phys.mass double nullable lii Galactic Longitude degree pos.galactic.lon double nullable vmag_extinction NED Foreground V Band Extinction mag phys.absorption;em.opt.V double nullable log_tot_gc_mass_error Uncertainty in Logarithm of Total Globular Cluster Mass log(Solar_Mass) stat.error;phys.mass double nullable log_dyn_mass Logarithm of Dynamical Mass log(Solar_Mass) phys.mass double nullable abs_vmag Absolute Visual Magnitude mag phys.magAbs;em.opt.V double nullable sigma_e_error Uncertainty in Stellar Velocity Dispersion km/s stat.error;phys.veloc.dispersion double nullable sigma_e Stellar Velocity Dispersion km/s phys.veloc.dispersion double nullable log_smbh_mass Logarithm of Central Supermassive Black Hole Mass log(Solar_Mass) phys.mass double nullable abs_vmag_error Uncertainty in Absolute Visual Magnitude mag stat.error;phys.magAbs;em.opt.V double nullable alt_name Other Galaxy Identifier meta.id char nullable log_tot_gc_mass Logarithm of Total Globular Cluster Mass log(Solar_Mass) phys.mass double nullable effective_radius_error Uncertainty in Effective Radius kpc stat.error;phys.size.radius double nullable bii Galactic Latitude degree pos.galactic.lat double nullable ref_num_glob_clust Reference Source for Number of Globular Clusters meta.ref char nullable distance_method Method Used to Determine Distance meta.code;pos.distance char nullable "__x_ra_dec" System unit vector column double nullable "__y_ra_dec" System unit vector column double nullable "__z_ra_dec" System unit vector column double nullable "__row" System index column char nullable