This service provides an interface to an automatically populated database
of newly discovered objects that have been reported in ATels, or reported
via a VOEVENT
stream. This allows users to check, for example, whether
their newly-detected transient is completely new, or has already been reported by other authors.
These tables, described in more detail below, are updated hourly. These do not
claim to be perfect, and users are strongly encouraged to read the
caveats at the end of this document.
The service was first created in 2011 September: the database/event table is populated with sources detected since this time. The ATel table has been created from all ATels.
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To search the databases simply enter the position of interest in the box on the search page. This is intended to be free-form and supports most types of sexagesimal/decimal input, the only limit is that coordinates must be in J2000, equatorial format. Object names can also be entered: these will be resolved using SIMBAD. The results from the two tables will be shown consecutively beneath the form, when the search is performed.
We ask that, when used, this service is acknowledged (e.g. by URL in a footnote). In particular, please can the following text be used in the acknowledgements of any papers which made use of this service:
This work made use of data supplied by the UK Swift Science Data Centre at the University of Leicester.
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This table is populated by software which parses every ATel that is published, searching for anything that looks like a co-ordinate. Matches are then added to the database. This is a challenging process, since ATels are prosaic and human-written. Therefore it is also an imperfect process. Details of this are given in the caveats (below), but it is strongly advised that you read the ATels in which any matches are found (a link is provided in the search results) to confirm the matches.
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This table is populated by parsing the latest
XMM-Newton Slew Survey discoveries, and by reading the following VOEVENT
streams:
Since these feeds are formatted, co-ordinate identification is reliable. However, please still see the caveats (below) due to issues with the streams.
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Please be aware of the following issues regarding the two tables:
VOEVENT
streams that have been parsed since 2011 were provided by
the skyalert.org facility. However, as of 2014 November, this facility has been offline.
We are in the process of establishing alternative sources of these feeds. This documentation
will be updated when that is done.Back to contents | Search catalogue
Changes since this service was launched in 2015 October will be logged here.