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Extended Chandra Deep Field-South Optical and Near-IR Counterparts

Metadata Updated: April 10, 2026

This table contains the results of a program to acquire high-quality optical spectra of X-ray sources detected in the Extended-Chandra Deep Field-South (E-CDF-S) and its central 2 Ms area. New spectroscopic redshifts, up to z = 4, are measured for 283 counterparts to Chandra sources with deep exposures (t ~ 2-9 hr per pointing) using multi-slit facilities on both VLT (VIMOS) and Keck (DEIMOS), thus bringing the total number of spectroscopically identified X-ray sources to over 500 in this survey field. Since their new spectroscopic identifications are mainly associated with X-ray sources in the shallower 250 ks coverage, the authors provide a comprehensive catalog of X-ray sources detected in the E-CDF-S including the optical and near-infrared counterparts, determined by a likelihood routine, and redshifts (both spectroscopic and photometric), that incorporate published spectroscopic catalogs, thus resulting in a final sample with a high fraction (80%) of X-ray sources having secure identifications. The authors demonstrate the remarkable coverage of the luminosity-redshift plane now accessible from their data while emphasizing the detection of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that contribute to the faint end of the luminosity function (L<sub>0.5-8keV</sub> ~ 10<sup>43</sup> - 10<sup>44</sup> erg s<sup>-1</sup>) at 1.5 <~ z <~ 3, including those with and without broad emission lines. This redshift catalog includes 17 type-2 QSOs at 1 <~ z <~ 3.5 that significantly increases (doubles) such samples. Based on thei deepest (9 hr) VLT/VIMOS observation, the authors identify "elusive" optically faint galaxies (R<sub>mag</sub> ~ 25) at z ~ 2 - 3 based upon the detection of interstellar absorption lines (e.g., O II+Si IV, C II], C IV); in their paper, they highlight one such case, an absorption-line galaxy at z = 3.208 having no obvious signs of an AGN in its optical spectrum. In addition, they determine accurate distances to eight galaxy groups with extended X-ray emission detected both by Chandra and XMM-Newton. This online catalog was created by the HEASARC in November 2010 based on a machine-readable version of Table 4 from the paper which was obtained from the ApJ website. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: See this page for license information.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date April 10, 2026
Publisher High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Maintainer
Identifier ivo://nasa.heasarc/ecdfsoid2
Data Last Modified 2026-04-06
Category Astrophysics
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id d4ac1c60-3d00-4f79-b1b5-4cadf6cc1019
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL ivo://nasa.heasarc/ecdfsoid2
License https://www.usa.gov/government-works
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b8590b0ec5addda7339cb7fcd838d7b6ea34589fdc458b849e2c063239114215
Source Schema Version 1.1

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