J/ApJ/909/30 StrayCats: NuSTAR stray light obs. (Grefenstette+, 2021)
StrayCats: a catalog of NuSTAR stray light observations.
Grefenstette B.W., Ludlam R.M., Thompson E.T., Garcia J.A., Hare J.,
Jaodand A.D., Krivonos R.A., Madsen K.K., Mastroserio G., Slaughter C.M.,
Tomsick J.A., Wik D., Zoglauer A.
<Astrophys. J., 909, 30 (2021)>
=2021ApJ...909...30G 2021ApJ...909...30G
ADC_Keywords: Binaries, X-ray; X-ray sources; Stars, neutron; Black holes;
Pulsars; Cross identifications
Keywords: X-ray surveys ; Astrophysical black holes ; Neutron stars ;
High mass x-ray binary stars ; Low-mass x-ray binary stars ;
Pulsars
Abstract:
We present StrayCats, a catalog of Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope
ARray (NuSTAR) stray light observations of X-ray sources. Stray light
observations arise for sources 1°-4° away from the telescope
pointing direction. At this off-axis angle, X-rays pass through a gap
between the optics and aperture stop and so do not interact with the
X-ray optics; instead, they directly illuminate the NuSTAR focal
plane. We have systematically identified and examined over 1400
potential observations resulting in a catalog of 436 telescope fields
and 78 stray light sources that have been identified. The sources
identified include historically known persistently bright X-ray
sources, X-ray binaries in outburst, pulsars, and type I X-ray
bursters. In this paper, we present an overview of the catalog, how we
identified the StrayCats sources, and the analysis techniques required
to produce high-level science products. Finally, we present a few
brief examples of the science quality of these unique data.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
catalog.dat 205 756 The StrayCats catalog
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See also:
J/A+A/545/A27 : INTEGRAL/IBIS 9yr Galactic Hard X-Ray Survey (Krivonos+, 2012)
J/ApJ/808/184 : NuSTAR surveys: ECDF-S catalog (Mullaney+, 2015)
J/ApJ/808/185 : NuSTAR surveys: COSMOS catalog (Civano+, 2015)
J/ApJ/825/132 : NuSTAR hard X-ray survey of the Gal. Center. II. (Hong+, 2016)
J/ApJ/831/102 : Swift and NuSTAR obs. of the BL Lac Mrk 421 (Kapanadze+, 2016)
J/ApJ/836/99 : NuSTAR serendipitous survey: 40-month cat. (Lansbury+, 2017)
J/ApJ/869/171 : Chandra observations of NuSTAR sources (Tomsick+, 2018)
J/ApJS/235/4 : The 105-month Swift-BAT all-sky hard X-ray survey (Oh+, 2018)
J/ApJS/235/17 : NuSTAR Extragalactic Surveys: UDS field (Masini+, 2018)
J/MNRAS/508/5176 : NuSTAR Extragalactic Surveys, NEP Field (Zhao+, 2021)
http://nustarstraycats.github.io/straycats/ : StrayCats home page
Byte-by-byte Description of file: catalog.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 14 A14 --- ID StrayCats identifier (StrayCatsI_NNN
with NNN between 0 and 755) (StrayID)
16- 22 A7 --- Type Classification (Classification) (1)
24- 34 I11 --- SeqID NuSTAR sequence number
36 A1 --- Mod The NuSTAR focal plane module (FPM) that
contains the stray light ("A" or "B") (Module)
38- 47 F10.3 s Exp The exposure time for this observation
(Exposure)
49 A1 --- m_SeqID Whether the sequence ID contains multiple
stray light patterns (Y or N) (Multi)
51- 72 A22 --- Primary Name of the primary target for the
pointed science observation
74- 85 F12.6 d Start The MJD start of the observation (TIME)
87- 98 F12.6 d End The MJD end of the observation (END_TIME)
100-107 F8.4 deg RAdeg Right ascension of the primary target (J2000)
(RA_Primary)
109-116 F8.4 deg DEdeg Declination of the primary target (J2000)
(DEC_Primary)
118-140 A23 --- SLName Name of the source of stray light if we
have identified it (SL_source)
142-157 A16 --- SLClass Classification (SL_type) (2)
159-181 A23 --- Simbad Simbad name (SIMBAD_ID) (3)
183-193 F11.6 deg RASdeg ? Right ascension of the source of
the stray light (RA_SL)
195-205 F11.6 deg DESdeg ? Declination of the source of
the stray light (DEC_SL)
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Note (1): Classification as follows:
SL = The source has been positively identified as a StrayCats target.
Complex = Stray light is present, but there are multiple overlapping
stray light regions that make the sources difficult to identify.
Faint = Stray light is present but too faint to be positively identified.
GR = The observation contains ghost rays from sources just outside
of the FoV.
Unkn = A stray light pattern is present, but the source of the stray
light remains unknown.
Note (2): For sources with a positive identification, we have made an effort
to sample the literature and provide a source classification. Many of
these are relatively famous sources identified by GINGA or Uhuru with
a large literature background, so we do not provide prime references
for the classifications in StrayCats. For sources with a
classification other than SL, this defaults to "??". Classification
types are as follows:
AGN = active galaxy (19 occurrences)
LMXB-NS = low-mass X-ray binary, neutron star (285 occurrences)
LMXB-BH = low-mass X-ray binary, black hole (15 occurrences)
HMXB-NS = high-mass X-ray binary, neutron star (55 occurrences)
HMXB-BH = high-mass X-ray binary, black hole (33 occurrences)
Eclipsing pulsar = 42 occurrences
PWNe = pulsar wind nebulae (61 occurrences)
NS = neutron star (17 occurrences)
BHC = Black hole candidate (41 occurrences)
SNR = supernova remnant (4 occurrences)
Cluster = Galaxy cluster (1 occurrence)
Radio galaxy = 2 occurrences
?? = 181 occurrences
Note (3): The identifier that can be used via SIMBAD to identify the source.
This can often be different than the source name in the all-sky
catalogs used to identify the source.
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 08-Aug-2022