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NGC 4649 Chandra X-Ray Point Source Catalog 2

Metadata Updated: April 10, 2026

This table contains the main X-ray source catalog for the Chandra monitoring observations of the 16.5-Mpc distant elliptical galaxy, NGC 4649. The galaxy has been observed with Chandra ACIS-S3 in six separate pointings, reaching a total exposure of 299 ks. There are 501 X-ray sources detected in the 0.3-8.0 keV band in the merged observation or in one of the six individual observations; 399 sources are located within the D<sub>25</sub> ellipse. The observed 0.3-8.0 keV luminosities of these 501 sources range from 9.3 x 10<sup>36</sup> erg s<sup>-1</sup> to 5.4 x 10<sup>39</sup> erg s<sup>-1</sup>. The 90% detection completeness limit within the D<sub>25</sub> ellipse is 5.5 x 10<sup>37</sup> erg s<sup>-1</sup>. Based on the surface density of background active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and the detection completeness, we expect ~ 45 background AGNs among the catalog sources (~ 15 within the D<sub>25</sub> ellipse). There are nine sources with luminosities greater than 10<sup>39</sup> erg s<sup>-1</sup>, which are candidates for ultraluminous X-ray sources. The nuclear source of NGC 4649 is a low-luminosity AGN, with an intrinsic 2.0-8.0 keV X-ray luminosity of 1.5 x 10<sup>38</sup> erg s<sup>-1</sup>. The X-ray colors suggest that the majority of the catalog sources are low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). The authors find that 164 of the 501 X-ray sources show long-term variability, indicating that they are accreting compact objects, and discover four transient candidates and another four potential transients. They also identify 173 X-ray sources (141 within the D<sub>25</sub> ellipse) that are associated with globular clusters (GCs) based on Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based data; these LMXBs tend to be hosted by red GCs. Although NGC 4649 has a much larger population of X-ray sources than the structurally similar early-type galaxies, NGC 3379 and NGC 4278, the X-ray source properties are comparable in all three systems. This HEASARC table contains the main Chandra source catalog of the basic properties of the 501 X-ray detected sources (Table 3 in the reference paper which includes both sources detected in the merged X-ray image as well as a number only detected in the individual observations), and also the information on source counts, hardness ratios and soft and hard X-ray colors in the merged observation for the same 501 X-ray detected sources (Table 4 in the reference paper). It does not contain the information on source counts, hardness ratios and soft and hard X-ray colors for these same sources in the six individual observations that were contained in Tables 5 - 10 of the reference paper. This table was created by the HEASARC in March 2013 based on the electronic version of Tables 3 and 4 from the reference paper which were obtained from the ApJS 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.

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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/ngc4649cx2
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 aff8e4e2-ba44-46dd-92ca-d0180d17bc92
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL ivo://nasa.heasarc/ngc4649cx2
License https://www.usa.gov/government-works
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 3755e8930bc31f6209611cff2e6c584976a4b7f072378d60fcb9194f06864e42
Source Schema Version 1.1

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