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VLA-COSMOS 3-GHz Large Project Source Catalog

Metadata Updated: April 10, 2026

This table contains some of the results from the VLA-COSMOS 3-GHz Large Project based on 384 hours of observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) at 3 GHz (10 cm) toward the 2 square degree Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field. The final mosaic reaches a median rms of 2.3 µJy (µJy) beam<sup>-1</sup> over the 2 square degrees at an angular resolution of 0.75 arcseconds. To fully account for the spectral shape and resolution variations across the broad (2-GHz) band, the authors imaged all the data with a multiscale, multifrequency synthesis algorithm. In this table, the catalog of 10,830 radio sources down to 5 sigma is presented, out of which 67 are combined from multiple components. Comparing the positions of these 3-GHz sources with those from the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA)-COSMOS survey, the authors estimate that the astrometry is accurate to 0.01 arcseconds at the bright end (signal-to-noise ratio, S/N<sub>3GHz</sub> > 20). Survival analysis on these data combined with the VLA-COSMOS 1.4-GHz Joint Project catalog yields an expected median radio spectral index alpha = -0.7. The authors compute completeness corrections via Monte Carlo simulations to derive the corrected 3-GHz source counts. Their counts are in agreement with previously derived 3-GHz counts based on single-pointing (0.087 square degrees) VLA data. In summary, the VLA-COSMOS 3-GHz Large Project simultaneously provides the largest and deepest radio continuum survey at high (0.75") angular resolution to date, bridging the gap between last-generation and next-generation surveys. The catalog contains sources selected down to a 5-sigma (where sigma ~2.3 µJy/beam) threshold. This catalog can be used for statistical analyses, accompanied with the corrections given in the data & catalog release paper. All completeness and bias corrections and source counts presented in the paper were calculated using this sample. The total fraction of spurious sources in the COSMOS 2 sq.deg. field is below 2.7% within this catalog. However, an increase of spurious sources up to 24% at 5.0 < S/N < 5.5 is present (for details see Sec. 5.2., Fig. 17 and Table 3 of the reference paper). A subsample with a minimal spurious source fraction can be selected by requiring an additional cutoff S/N >= 5.5 for single component sources (MULTI=0). The total fraction of spurious sources in the COSMOS 2 sq.deg. field within such a selected sample is below 0.4%, and the fraction of spurious sources is below 3% even at the lowest S/N of 5.5. This table was created by the HEASARC in June 2017 based on <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/J/A+A/602/A1">CDS Catalog J/A+A/602/A1</a> file table1.dat, the VLA-COSMOS 3-GHz radio source catalog. 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/vlacos3ghz
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 d23fc33f-a5da-4486-b8b5-09a407a5af3a
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL ivo://nasa.heasarc/vlacos3ghz
License https://www.usa.gov/government-works
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 4423a55ca173b01c2ff5fd057204e3f607dac0efa75c89fc6a568e283d4b1a4b
Source Schema Version 1.1

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