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A Gaia oriented analysis of a large sample of quasars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2007

A. H. Andrei
Affiliation:
Observatório Nacional/MCTR. Gal. JosCristino 77, RJ, Brasil email: oat1@on.br Observatório do Valongo/UFRJ, Brasil SYRTE/Observatoire de Paris, France
M. Assafin
Affiliation:
Observatório do Valongo/UFRJ, Brasil
C. Barache
Affiliation:
SYRTE/Observatoire de Paris, France
S. Bouquillon
Affiliation:
SYRTE/Observatoire de Paris, France
G. Bourda
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Bordeaux, France
J. I. B. Camargo
Affiliation:
Observatório do Valongo/UFRJ, Brasil
J.-F. le Campion
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Bordeaux, France
P. Charlot
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Bordeaux, France
A.-M. Gontier
Affiliation:
SYRTE/Observatoire de Paris, France
S. Lambert
Affiliation:
Observatoire Royal de Belgique
J. J. Pereira Osório
Affiliation:
Observatório Astronico da Universidade do Porto, Portugal
D. N. da Silva Neto
Affiliation:
Observatório do Valongo/UFRJ, Brasil Universidade Estadual da Zona Oeste/RJ, Brasil
J. Souchay
Affiliation:
SYRTE/Observatoire de Paris, France
R. Vieira Martins
Affiliation:
Observatório Nacional/MCTR. Gal. JosCristino 77, RJ, Brasil email: oat1@on.br
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Abstract

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Gaia photometric capabilities should distinguish quasars to a high degree of certainty. With this, they should also be able to deliver a clean sample of quasars with a negligible trace of stellar contaminants. However, a purely photometric sample could miss a non negligible percentage of ICRF sources counterparts - and this interface is required to align with the ICRS and de-rotate the GCRF (Gaia Celestial Reference Frame), on grounds of continuity. To prepare a minimum clean sample forming the initial quasar catalogue for the Gaia mission, an all sky ensemble was formed containing 128,257 candidates. Among them there is at least one redshift determination for 98.75%, and at least one magnitude determination for 99.20% of the targets. The sources were collected from different optical and radio lists. We analyze the redshift, magnitude, and color distributions, their relationships, as well as their degree of completeness.

Complementary, the candidate sources enable to form an optical representation of the ICRS from first principles, namely, kinematically non-rotating with respect to the ensemble of distant extragalactic objects, aligned to the mean equator and dynamical equinox of J2000, and realized by a list of adopted coordinates of extragalactic sources.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

Andrei, A. H., Souchay, J., Zacharias, N., Smart, R. L., de Cameargo, J. I. B., da Silva Neto, D. N., Vieira Martins, R., Assafin, M., Barache, C., Bouquillon, S., & Penna, J. L. 2007, AA, in preparation.Google Scholar
Souchay, J., Andrei, A. H., Barache, C., Bouquillon, S., Suchet, D., Baudin, M., Gontier, A.-M., Lambert, S., Le Poncin-Lafitte, C., Taris, F., & Arias, F. E. 2007, AA, in preparation.Google Scholar