The SARAO MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey compact source catalogue

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Mutale, Mubela, Thompson, Mark A., Williams, Gwenllian M., Rigby, Andrew J., Hoare, Melvin G., Urquhart, James S., Bietenholz, Michael, Bordiu, Cristobal, Camilo, Fernando, Cotton, William D., Goedhart, Sharmila, Obonyo, Willice O., Riggi, Simone, Yang, Aiyuan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Mutale, Mubela
Thompson, Mark A.
Williams, Gwenllian M.
Rigby, Andrew J.
Hoare, Melvin G.
Urquhart, James S.
Bietenholz, Michael
Bordiu, Cristobal
Camilo, Fernando
Cotton, William D.
Goedhart, Sharmila
Obonyo, Willice O.
Riggi, Simone
Yang, Aiyuan
author_facet Mutale, Mubela
Thompson, Mark A.
Williams, Gwenllian M.
Rigby, Andrew J.
Hoare, Melvin G.
Urquhart, James S.
Bietenholz, Michael
Bordiu, Cristobal
Camilo, Fernando
Cotton, William D.
Goedhart, Sharmila
Obonyo, Willice O.
Riggi, Simone
Yang, Aiyuan
contents We present a catalogue of compact sources detected in the SARAO MeerKAT 1.3 GHz Galactic Plane Survey (SMGPS). We extract 510599 compact sources, with areas less than five 8" beams, from the survey maps covering the regions $252°< l < 358^°$ and $2°< l < 61°$ at $|b| \leq 1.5^°$, which have an angular resolution of 8" and a sensitivity of $\sim$ 10-30 $μ$Jy beam$^{-1}$. In this paper, we describe the source identification and characterisation methods, present the quality assurance of the catalogue, explore the nature of the catalogue sources, and present initial science highlights. We limit our catalogue to sources with a signal-to-noise ratio $\geq 5$, as the catalogue is $\sim$90 per cent complete, and has a false positive rate of less than 1 per cent at this threshold. The bulk of the catalogue sources are previously unknown to the literature, with the majority of unknown sources at sub-mJy levels. Initial science highlights from the catalogue include the detection of 213 radio quiet WISE HII region candidates, previously undetected in radio continuum studies. We show images that compare the SMGPS compact sources to CORNISH ultracompact HII regions, thus highlighting the sensitivity and unprecedented uv-coverage of the SMGPS, and the potential synergy of the SMGPS with other surveys.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_23707
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The SARAO MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey compact source catalogue
Mutale, Mubela
Thompson, Mark A.
Williams, Gwenllian M.
Rigby, Andrew J.
Hoare, Melvin G.
Urquhart, James S.
Bietenholz, Michael
Bordiu, Cristobal
Camilo, Fernando
Cotton, William D.
Goedhart, Sharmila
Obonyo, Willice O.
Riggi, Simone
Yang, Aiyuan
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We present a catalogue of compact sources detected in the SARAO MeerKAT 1.3 GHz Galactic Plane Survey (SMGPS). We extract 510599 compact sources, with areas less than five 8" beams, from the survey maps covering the regions $252°< l < 358^°$ and $2°< l < 61°$ at $|b| \leq 1.5^°$, which have an angular resolution of 8" and a sensitivity of $\sim$ 10-30 $μ$Jy beam$^{-1}$. In this paper, we describe the source identification and characterisation methods, present the quality assurance of the catalogue, explore the nature of the catalogue sources, and present initial science highlights. We limit our catalogue to sources with a signal-to-noise ratio $\geq 5$, as the catalogue is $\sim$90 per cent complete, and has a false positive rate of less than 1 per cent at this threshold. The bulk of the catalogue sources are previously unknown to the literature, with the majority of unknown sources at sub-mJy levels. Initial science highlights from the catalogue include the detection of 213 radio quiet WISE HII region candidates, previously undetected in radio continuum studies. We show images that compare the SMGPS compact sources to CORNISH ultracompact HII regions, thus highlighting the sensitivity and unprecedented uv-coverage of the SMGPS, and the potential synergy of the SMGPS with other surveys.
title The SARAO MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey compact source catalogue
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23707