MAssive Cluster Survey

MAssive Cluster Survey
Website	www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~ebeling/clusters/MACS.html
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The MAssive Cluster Survey (MACS)^[1]^[2] compiled and characterized a sample of very X-ray luminous (and thus, by inference, massive), distant clusters of galaxies. The sample comprises 124 spectroscopically confirmed clusters at 0.3 < z < 0.7. Candidates were selected from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey data.^[3]

History[]

One of the galaxy clusters, MACS J0647+7015 was found to have gravitationally lensed the most distant galaxy (MACS0647-JD) then ever imaged, in 2012, by CLASH. The first statistical study of X-ray cavities in distant clusters of galaxies was performed by analyzing the Chandra X-ray observations of MACS. Out of 76 clusters representing a sample of the most luminous X-ray clusters, observers found 13 cut and clear cavities and 7 possible cavities. A new radio halo, as well as a relic applicant, were found in MACS, with the help of the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope and the Karoo Array Telescope-7. The discovered radio halo has a largest linear scale of about 0.9Mpc. X-ray chosen clusters are almost free of projection effects because they are composed of intrinsically massive, gravitationally collapsed systems.

MACS team[]

The MACS team consists of:

Harald Ebeling, University of Hawaii, USA
Alastair Edge, University of Durham, UK
J. Patrick Henry, University of Hawaii, USA

Survey notation[]

Objects are labelled as JHHMM.m+DDMM where HHMM+DDMM are the coordinates in the J2000 system. Here H, D, and M refer to hours, degrees, and minutes, respectively, and m refers to tenths of minutes of time.

HH Hours of right ascension
MM.m Minutes of right ascension or declination
DD.d Degrees in declination

Notable surveyed objects[]

Survey object	Right ascension	Declination	Notes
MACS J0025.4-1222	00^h 25.4^m	−12° 22′
MACS J0647+7015	06^h 47^m	+70° 15′
MACS J0717.5+3745	07^h 17.5^m	+37° 45′
MACS 1423-z7p64	14^h 23^m	24° 04′	The most distant galaxy known as at April 2017

References[]

^ Ebeling, Harald; Alastair Edge; J. Patrick Henry (2001). "MACS: A Quest for the Most Massive Galaxy Clusters in the Universe". Astrophysical Journal. 553 (2): 668. arXiv:astro-ph/0009101. Bibcode:2001ApJ...553..668E. doi:10.1086/320958.
^ Ebeling, Harald; Elizabeth Barrett; David Donovan; Cheng-Jiun Ma; Alastair Edge; Leon van Speybroeck (2007). "A Complete Sample of 12 Very X-Ray Luminous Galaxy Clusters at z > 0.5". Astrophysical Journal Letters. 661 (661): 33. arXiv:astro-ph/0703394. Bibcode:2007ApJ...661L..33E. doi:10.1086/518603.
^ MAssive Cluster Survey (MACS)