ASCA Catalog: X-ray Properties of 313 Elliptical Galaxies and Clusters

313 elliptical galaxies, groups, and clusters of galaxies were analyzed using ASCA archival data to measure X-ray properties of their hot gas. The study, compiled by NASA, systematically derived luminosity-temperature relations and gas mass scaling, with 292 objects used for correlation analysis. The data was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling the luminosity-temperature (L-T) relation based on measured power-law slopes and break points.
• Investigating the dominance of gravitational vs. non-gravity effects in clusters based on L-T relation steepness.
• Estimating intracluster gas mass scaling with temperature using the M_gas ~ T relation.
• Analyzing X-ray faint systems to infer the presence of large-scale, undetected hot gas.

Strengths

• Systematic analysis of approximately 300 objects using a consistent archival source (ASCA).
• Provides specific measured parameters, including L-T relation slopes (e.g., alpha = 3.17 +/- 0.15) and break points at 1 keV and 4 keV.
• Includes clear documentation of data selection, listing 313 total objects and reasons for excluding specific ones from correlations.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Some objects (17 with unknown redshift, 13 with insignificant detection, 10 with contamination) were excluded from correlation analyses.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Utilized all ASCA archival data for elliptical galaxies and clusters, selecting the observation with the longest exposure for multiply-observed objects.

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 16:55:56.419587; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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