J/A+A/682/A153 VVV Bulge galaxies (Duplancic+, 2024)
Enlightening the Universe behind the Milky Way bulge.
I. Target selection of VVV bulge galaxies.
Duplancic F., Alonso S., Coldwell G., Galdeano D., Minniti D., Fernandez J.,
Mesa V., Perez N., Pereyra L., Pavesich F.
<Astron. Astrophys. 682, A153 (2024)>
=2024A&A...682A.153D 2024A&A...682A.153D (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Galaxies, photometry ; Galaxies, IR ; Galaxy catalogs ;
Photometry, infrared
Keywords: Galaxy: bulge - galaxies: photometry - galaxies: statistics -
infrared: galaxies
Abstract:
The 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.
Description:
We present Source Extractor photometry of 14480 galaxy candidates
detected in the Milky Way Bulge area covered by VVV survey.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
catalog.dat 194 14480 Catalogue of galaxy candidates behind the
VVV Milky Way Bulge
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See also:
J/A+A/550/A42 : Extinction map towards the Galactic bulge (Chen+, 2013)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: catalog.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 12 I12 --- Source Unique ID over entire VSA
17- 25 F9.5 deg RAdeg Right Ascension J2000 (degrees)
30- 38 F9.5 deg DEdeg Declination J2000 (degrees)
43- 49 F7.4 mag ZmagAp Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Z
54- 59 F6.4 mag e_ZmagAp Error Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Z
64- 70 F7.4 mag YmagAp Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Y
75- 80 F6.4 mag e_YmagAp Error Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Y
85- 91 F7.4 mag JmagAp Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in J
96-101 F6.4 mag e_JmagAp Error Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in J
106-112 F7.4 mag HmagAp Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in H
117-122 F6.4 mag e_HmagAp Error Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in H
127-133 F7.4 mag KsmagAp Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Ks
138-143 F6.4 mag e_KsmagAp Error Aperture magnitude within 3 pixels in Ks
148-154 F7.4 mag KsmagTot Total magnitude in Ks (1)
159-164 F6.4 mag e_KsmagTot Error total magnitude in Ks
170-174 F5.3 mag AKs Extinction coefficient in Ks (2)
179-184 F6.3 arcsec R [1/16.8] Half-light radius (3)
190-194 F5.3 --- CS [0/0.5] Stellarity parameter (4)
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Note (1): Total magnitude based on Kron's algorithm.
Note (2): From Chen et al. (2013A&A...550A..42C 2013A&A...550A..42C, Cat. J/A+A/550/A42)
Note (3): The radius that encloses 50% of the object total flux en Ks band.
Note (4): From Ks image. The stars lie in a sequence near CS=1 while
galaxies are near CS=0.
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Acknowledgements:
Fernanda Duplancic, fduplancic(at)unsj-cuim.edu.ar
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 04-Dec-2023