AGNs in the MIR using AllWISE data Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Secrest N.J.
  2. Dudik R.P.
  3. Dorland B.N.
  4. Zacharias N.
  5. Makarov V.
  6. Fey A.,Frouard J.
  7. Finch C.
  8. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

We present an all-sky sample of ~1.4 million active galactic nuclei (AGNs) meeting a two-color infrared photometric selection criteria for AGNs as applied to sources from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer final catalog release (AllWISE). We assess the spatial distribution and optical properties of our sample and find that the results are consistent with expectations for AGNs. These sources have a mean density of ~38 AGNs per square degree on the sky, and their apparent magnitude distribution peaks at g~20, extending to objects as faint as g~26. We test the AGN selection criteria against a large sample of optically identified stars and determine the "leakage" (that is, the probability that a star detected in an optical survey will be misidentified as a quasi-stellar object (QSO) in our sample) rate to be <=4.0x10^-5^. We conclude that our sample contains almost no optically identified stars (<=0.041%), making this sample highly promising for future celestial reference frame work as it significantly increases the number of all-sky, compact extragalactic objects. We further compare our sample to catalogs of known AGNs/QSOs and find a completeness value of >~84% (that is, the probability of correctly identifying a known AGN/QSO is at least 84%) for AGNs brighter than a limiting magnitude of R<~19. Our sample includes approximately 1.1 million previously uncataloged AGNs.

Keywords
  1. active-galactic-nuclei
  2. infrared-photometry
  3. redshifted
  4. astronomical-object-identification
  5. surveys
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2015ApJS..221...12S
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJS/221/12
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/221/12
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.22210012

Access

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http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJS/221/12
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJS/221/12
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJS/221/12
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http://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).
IVOA Cone Search SCS
For use with a cone search client (e.g., TOPCAT).
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJS/221/12/table1?
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJS/221/12/table1?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJS/221/12/table1?

History

2016-02-05T15:37:47Z
Resource record created
2016-02-05T15:37:47Z
Created
2017-01-23T22:00:00Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr