Hickson Compact Groups: Chandra X-Ray Point Source Catalog for 37 Galaxies

A 2014 catalog from NASA HEASARC containing Chandra X-ray point source data for 9 Hickson Compact Groups comprising 37 galaxies at distances of 34 to 89 Mpc. The table provides counts, count rates, power-law indices, hardness ratios, and X-ray luminosities in full, soft, and hard bands for sources detected at the aim point of the ACIS-S3 CCD. Authors used optical emission-line ratios to classify 24 galaxies and identified two strong multi-wavelength AGNs with luminosities >= 10^42 erg s^-1.

Use Cases

• Classifying galaxy nuclei as star-forming, AGN, or low-ionization regions based on optical emission-line ratios and X-ray data.
• Analyzing the correlation between X-ray and near-UV luminosity for strong AGNs based on the alpha_OX - nu L_nu(near-UV) relationship.
• Estimating X-ray luminosities for faint sources using simulated hardness ratios where spectral fitting is unreliable.
• Comparing nuclear X-ray source properties with Swift/UVOT counterparts for two-thirds of the cataloged galaxies.

Strengths

• Contains detailed photometry and source detection for 37 galaxies across 9 compact groups.
• Provides X-ray luminosities in three energy bands (0.5-8.0 keV, 0.5-2.0 keV, 2-8 keV) for all sources.
• Includes galaxy classifications (star-forming, AGN, etc.) for 24 galaxies based on literature emission-line ratios.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data was created in 2014, with some values corrected in 2018; freshness should be verified for current research.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA HEASARC)

Collection Method

Based on electronic versions of Tables 2 and 3 from the reference paper obtained from the ApJS web site.

Time Range

Observational data timeframe not specified; catalog created in June 2014.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 16:41:18.553340; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Extragalactic; targets are Hickson Compact Groups at distances of 34 to 89 Mpc.