Chandra Source Catalog Reaches Version 2.2 With 432,713 X-Ray Sources
NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC) announced on November 5 that the Chandra Source Catalog has been updated to version 2.2 (CSC 2.2). The new release, issued in October 2026, is now available through HEASARC's Browse and Xamin systems.
The Chandra Source Catalog is the definitive catalog of X-ray sources detected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, delivering uniformly calibrated properties and science-ready data products for each source. Version 2.2 includes measured properties for 432,713 unique compact and extended X-ray sources, gathered in the Master Sources table, allowing statistical analysis of large samples as well as studies of individual sources.
Four related catalogs were released alongside it, covering master source and stacked source associations, stacked detections, stacked source-observation associations and per-observation detections, linking how the same object appears across many separate observations.
Launched aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory is one of NASA's Great Observatories and the most powerful X-ray telescope ever flown, still operating after more than 27 years in orbit. The continuously updated catalog is one of its foundational data legacies for astronomers worldwide. (Source: NASA)
Source: NASA
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：钱德拉X射线天文台拍摄的仙后座A超新星遗迹X射线图像（局部）。NASA/CXC 图片（公共领域），Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: A Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant (close-up). NASA/CXC image, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
