GALEX Observations of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: A Comparison

Authors :: D. Christopher Martin
O. H. W. Siegmund
Ted K. Wyder
Timothy M. Heckman
Tamás Budavári
Young-Wook Lee
Samir Salim
Tom A. Barlow
Patrick Morrissey
Barry Y. Welsh
Luciana Bianchi
Karl Forster
Soo-Chang Rey
B. Milliard
Alexander S. Szalay
Y. I. Byun
Barry F. Madore
R. Michael Rich
Susan G. Neff
Todd Small
Jaehyon Rhee
Mark Seibert
Roger F. Malina
Peter G. Friedman
Patrick N. Jelinsky
Jose Donas
David Schiminovich
Source :: The Astrophysical Journal. 619:L23-L26
Publication Year :: 2005
Publisher :: American Astronomical Society, 2005.
Abstract: We have matched 358,046 objects in 143 deg2 of overlap between the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This Letter provides matching statistics at Medium Imaging Survey and All-sky Imaging Survey depths for SDSS-classified stars and galaxies as well as spectroscopic star, galaxy, and QSO subsamples. Distributions of magnitudes, redshifts, and colors are provided. Near-ultraviolet (NUV)-based color-color diagrams reveal (1) the segregation of main-sequence, horizontal-branch, subdwarf, white dwarf, M dwarf, and M dwarf-white dwarf binary stellar populations, (2) a bimodal distribution of galaxies, and (3) the higher signal quality of the GALEX NUV compared to the SDSS u band.