NGC 1291 Chandra X-Ray Point Source Catalog with 169 Detections

NASA HEASARC provides a catalog of 169 X-ray point sources detected in the ring galaxy NGC 1291 using Chandra observations totaling 179 ks of exposure. The catalog, created in May 2012, reports photometric properties and classifies sources in the bulge and ring regions, with luminosity functions reaching 90% completeness limits of ~1.5e37 and ~2.2e37 erg/s. The data suggests the populations are dominated by low-mass X-ray binaries, with evidence for an older population in the bulge and a younger one in the ring.

Use Cases

• Modeling X-ray luminosity functions based on the reported broken power-law fits for bulge and ring populations.
• Comparing stellar population ages based on the relative overdensity, X-ray color, and luminosity function shape differences between bulge and ring sources.
• Studying low-luminosity active galactic nuclei based on the spectral analysis of the nuclear source.
• Analyzing long-term variability in X-ray sources based on the reported >3-sigma variability in count rates for a subset of sources.

Strengths

• Contains 169 X-ray point sources with a low false-positive probability threshold of 10^-6.
• Provides 90% completeness limits for luminosity functions (~1.5e37 erg/s for bulge, ~2.2e37 erg/s for ring).
• Includes source classification estimates (~75% of bulge and ~65% of ring sources are likely LMXBs).

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 (NASA HEASARC)

Collection Method

Created based on an electronic version of Table 2 from a reference paper obtained from the ApJ website.

Time Range

Based on Chandra observations; specific observation dates are not provided in the description.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 17:50:23.783365; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Spatial coverage is the ring galaxy NGC 1291.