Table · dataset · 2026
eROSITA DR1 ULX catalog
Listed in IVOA Registry (Virtual Observatory)
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are luminous, non-nuclear X-ray point sources embedded in galaxies.
Description
Their luminosities exceeding 1e39 erg/s potentially require sub-Eddington accretion by objects with masses from about 1e2 solar masses to about 1e4 solar masses, or supercritical accretion beyond the Eddington limit by stellar mass black holes or neutron stars. As such, ULXs are excellent laboratories for extreme accretion flows in X-ray binaries and, in some cases, potential candidates for intermediate-mass black holes.
The first catalog by the eROSITA instrument onboard the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) mission provides the most complete X-ray view of the whole of the western Galactic hemisphere and is therefore an excellent resource in which to find new ULXs. We identify ULXs by searching for X-ray counterparts in the about 1e5 local galaxies of the HECATE catalog in the footprint of the first eROSITA all-sky survey. The catalog is unaffected by X-ray selection biases.
Read the rest (3 more)
The catalog provides the basis for ULX population studies and follow up observations for more detailed investigation of individual sources and variability. We search for X-ray point sources exceeding the ULX threshold in HECATE galaxies, excluding the nuclear regions of the galaxies to avoid the selection of AGN. We remove known contaminants such as supernovae, stars, and AGN and manually vet all candidates to further remove potential contaminants.
We present two samples of ULX candidates. The main sample consists of 90 sources with highly confident X-ray detections, 53 of which are identified for the first time. It is complete to a distance of about 7 Mpc, contains at most 29% of unknown background AGN, and is mostly unaffected by source confusion.
Based on our list of less confident detections, we also provide an extended catalog of 260 sources, of which 245 are identified for the first time, as potential candidates for further ULX identifications. Additionally, we supply a list of all contaminants identified in our search.
Links
Where it is published
- Reference page cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/712/A112 ↗
landing page · from IVOA Registry
Documentation and papers
- ADS 2026A&A...712A.112W ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2026A%26A...712A.112W ↗
publication · from IVOA Registry
Catalogue records · 2
- VOResource record dc.g-vo.org/oai.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=ivo_vor&identifier=ivo%3… ↗
metadata API · from IVOA Registry
- Registry record (GAVO) dc.g-vo.org/I/cds.vizier/j/a%2Ba/712/a112 ↗
catalogue entry · from IVOA Registry
Topics
- Stated by source
- X-Ray
- From keywords
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| IVOA Registry (Virtual Observatory) | ivo://cds.vizier/j/a+a/712/a112 | 10 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| access_level | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:astronomy | mapping · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[modality].ivoa_waveband:x-ray | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | rr.resource.res_description |
| license_text | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| publication_date | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 | rr.resource.res_title |
| updated_date | source · IVOA Registry | connector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0 |