Shakhbazian Compact Groups: 377 Compact Galaxy Groups from Palomar Sky Survey

377 compact groups of galaxies were compiled from ten lists published between 1973 and 1979. This catalog includes equatorial coordinates, group sizes, member counts, and coefficients of relative compactness. NASA HEASARC created this database table in December 1999 based on the CDS catalog VII/89B.

Use Cases

• Identify dense galaxy groups for follow-up observation based on equatorial coordinates.
• Study galaxy group morphology and dynamics based on group size and compactness coefficients.
• Analyze the relationship between group richness and member brightness based on the number of constituent galaxies and brightest member magnitude.

Strengths

• Contains 377 distinct compact galaxy groups.
• Compiles data from ten published lists spanning a 6-year period (1973-1979).
• Includes derived metrics like coefficients of relative compactness.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count for the related SHKGALAXY table of individual galaxies is unknown.
• Data is derived from photographic plates (Palomar Sky Survey red charts), which may have inherent calibration limits.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA HEASARC), based on CDS catalog VII/89B.

Collection Method

Compilation of ten published lists from the Palomar Sky Survey red charts.

Time Range

Publication period 1973 to 1979.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 19:26:43.170629; freshness should be verified.