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Hamburg/RASS Catalog: X-Ray Sources

Published by High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center | National Aeronautics and Space Administration | Metadata Last Checked: September 14, 2025 | Last Modified: 2025-09-10
This table is a representation of part of the Hamburg/ROSAT All-Sky Survey (RASS) Catalog (HRC) of optical identifications of X-ray sources at high-galactic latitude, namely the list of X-ray sources. (The list of proposed and possible optical counterparts is given in the linked Browse table HRASSOPTID). The HRC includes all X-ray sources from the ROSAT Bright Source Catalog (RASS-BSC) with galactic latitude |b| >= 30 degrees and declination Dec >= 0 degrees. In this part of the sky covering ~10,000 square degrees, the RASS-BSC contains 5341 X-ray sources. For the optical identification, the HRC authors used blue Schmidt prism and direct plates taken for the northern hemisphere Hamburg Quasar Survey (HQS) which are now available in digitized form. The limiting magnitudes are 18.5 and 20, respectively. For 82% of the selected RASS-BSC, an identification could be given. For the rest, either no counterpart was visible in the error circle, or a plausible identification was not possible. With ~42%, AGN represent the largest group of X-ray emitters, ~31% have a stellar counterpart, whereas galaxies and cluster of galaxies comprise only ~4% and ~5%, respectively. In ~3% of the RASS-BSC sources, no object was visible on the blue direct plates within 40" around the X-ray source position. The catalog has been used as a source for the selection of (nearly) complete samples of the various classes of X-ray emitters. This table was produced by the HEASARC in February 2005 based on the CDS Catalog table J/A+A/406/353/x-ray.dat. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .

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