The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)

February 2006 • 2006AJ....131.1163S

Authors • Skrutskie, M. F. • Cutri, R. M. • Stiening, R. • Weinberg, M. D. • Schneider, S. • Carpenter, J. M. • Beichman, C. • Capps, R. • Chester, T. • Elias, J. • Huchra, J. • Liebert, J. • Lonsdale, C. • Monet, D. G. • Price, S. • Seitzer, P. • Jarrett, T. • Kirkpatrick, J. D. • Gizis, J. E. • Howard, E. • Evans, T. • Fowler, J. • Fullmer, L. • Hurt, R. • Light, R. • Kopan, E. L. • Marsh, K. A. • McCallon, H. L. • Tam, R. • Van Dyk, S. • Wheelock, S.

Abstract • Between 1997 June and 2001 February the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) collected 25.4 Tbytes of raw imaging data covering 99.998% of the celestial sphere in the near-infrared J (1.25 μm), H (1.65 μm), and K_s (2.16 μm) bandpasses. Observations were conducted from two dedicated 1.3 m diameter telescopes located at Mount Hopkins, Arizona, and Cerro Tololo, Chile. The 7.8 s of integration time accumulated for each point on the sky and strict quality control yielded a 10 σ point-source detection level of better than 15.8, 15.1, and 14.3 mag at the J, H, and K_s bands, respectively, for virtually the entire sky. Bright source extractions have 1 σ photometric uncertainty of <0.03 mag and astrometric accuracy of order 100 mas. Calibration offsets between any two points in the sky are <0.02 mag. The 2MASS All-Sky Data Release includes 4.1 million compressed FITS images covering the entire sky, 471 million source extractions in a Point Source Catalog, and 1.6 million objects identified as extended in an Extended Source Catalog.

Links

• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2006AJ....131.1163S
• DATA http://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/VII/233
• DATA https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/VII/233
• DATA https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/bibdata/2006/S/2006AJ....131.1163S.html
• PDF https://stacks.iop.org/1538-3881/131/1163/pdf
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.1086%2F498708