AllWISE Catalog: ~1.4 Million Mid-Infrared Active Galactic Nuclei

NASA's AllWISE Catalog of Mid-IR AGNs contains an all-sky sample of approximately 1.4 million active galactic nuclei selected via infrared photometry from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. The sample has a mean density of ~38 AGNs per square degree, a positional accuracy within 50 mas for many sources, and includes about 1.1 million previously uncataloged AGNs. The data release incorporates observations from the WISE mission's cryogenic and post-cryogenic phases, first made public in 2011.

Use Cases

• Training AGN classification models based on mid-infrared color selection criteria.
• Improving celestial reference frames based on the catalog's high number of compact extragalactic objects.
• Conducting spatial distribution analysis of AGNs using the all-sky coverage.
• Cross-matching and completeness studies against known AGN/QSO catalogs.
• Studying the optical properties of infrared-selected AGNs, such as apparent magnitude distributions.

Strengths

• Large sample of ~1.4 million objects, including ~1.1 million new AGNs.
• High completeness of >=84% for AGNs brighter than R <= 19 magnitude.
• Low stellar contamination rate (<= 0.041% optically identified stars).
• High positional accuracy, with half of sources in the 8 < W1 < 12 mag range accurate to within 20 mas.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Infrared photometric selection applied to the AllWISE data release, which co-added data from WISE mission phases.

Time Range

Survey conducted between 2010 January 7 and August 6, with data first public in 2011.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 18:00:12.099209; freshness should be verified.

Geography

All-sky spatial coverage.