A catalog to unite them all: REGALADE, a revised galaxy compilation for the advanced detector era

Context . Many applications in transient science, gravitational wave follow-up, and galaxy population studies require all-sky galaxy catalogs with reliable distances, extents, and stellar masses. However, existing catalogs often lack completeness beyond ~100 Mpc, suffer from stellar contamination, or do not provide homogeneous stellar mass estimates and size information. Aims . Our goal is to build a high-purity, high-completeness, all-sky galaxy catalog out to 2000 Mpc, specifically designed to support time-domain and multi-messenger astrophysics. Methods . We combined major galaxy catalogs and deep imaging surveys – including the Legacy Surveys, Pan-STARRS, DELVE, and SDSS – and added spectroscopic, photometric, and redshift-independent distances. We cleaned the sample using the Gaia catalog to remove stars and visually inspected all ambiguous cases below 100 Mpc through a classification platform that gathered 27 000 expert votes. Stellar masses were estimated using optical and mid-infrared profile-fit photometry, and we improved the accuracy of photometric distances by combining multiple independent estimates. Results . The resulting catalog, REGALADE, includes nearly 80 million galaxies with distances under 2000 Mpc. It provides stellar masses for 88% of the sample and ellipse fits for 80%. REGALADE is more than 90% complete for galaxies contributing 50% of the total r -band luminosity out to 360 Mpc. In science tests, it recovers 60% more known supernova hosts, doubles the number of low-luminosity transient hosts, and identifies more reliable hosts for ultraluminous and hyper-luminous X-ray sources. Conclusions . REGALADE is one of the most complete and reliable all-sky galaxy catalog to date for the nearby Universe, built for real-world applications in transient and multi-messenger astrophysics. The full dataset, visual classifications, and code will be released to support broad community use.

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Publication Details

Journal
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Published
2025-11-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202556896
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

A catalog to unite them all: REGALADE, a revised galaxy compilation for the advanced detector era

Fiorenzo Stoppa, N. Blagorodnova, S. Bloemen, P. Groot et al.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
article

A catalog to unite them all: REGALADE, a revised galaxy compilation for the advanced detector era

Fiorenzo Stoppa, N. Blagorodnova, S. Bloemen, P. Groot, L.G. Landsberg, S. M. Faris, P. M. Vreeswijk, Simone Scaringi, M. A. Gómez-Muñoz, Jan van Roestel, Hugo Tranin, D. L. A. Pieterse, Maxime Wavasseur
article en

Abstract

Context . Many applications in transient science, gravitational wave follow-up, and galaxy population studies require all-sky galaxy catalogs with reliable distances, extents, and stellar masses. However, existing catalogs often lack completeness beyond ~100 Mpc, suffer from stellar contamination, or do not provide homogeneous stellar mass estimates and size information. Aims . Our goal is to build a high-purity, high-completeness, all-sky galaxy catalog out to 2000 Mpc, specifically designed to support time-domain and multi-messenger astrophysics. Methods . We combined major galaxy catalogs and deep imaging surveys – including the Legacy Surveys, Pan-STARRS, DELVE, and SDSS – and added spectroscopic, photometric, and redshift-independent distances. We cleaned the sample using the Gaia catalog to remove stars and visually inspected all ambiguous cases below 100 Mpc through a classification platform that gathered 27 000 expert votes. Stellar masses were estimated using optical and mid-infrared profile-fit photometry, and we improved the accuracy of photometric distances by combining multiple independent estimates. Results . The resulting catalog, REGALADE, includes nearly 80 million galaxies with distances under 2000 Mpc. It provides stellar masses for 88% of the sample and ellipse fits for 80%. REGALADE is more than 90% complete for galaxies contributing 50% of the total r -band luminosity out to 360 Mpc. In science tests, it recovers 60% more known supernova hosts, doubles the number of low-luminosity transient hosts, and identifies more reliable hosts for ultraluminous and hyper-luminous X-ray sources. Conclusions . REGALADE is one of the most complete and reliable all-sky galaxy catalog to date for the nearby Universe, built for real-world applications in transient and multi-messenger astrophysics. The full dataset, visual classifications, and code will be released to support broad community use.

Astronomy and AstrophysicsVol. 706
Radboud University Nijmegen (NL), University of Cape Town (ZA), Tel Aviv University (IL), Durham University (GB), University of Oxford (GB), Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (ES), Institut Català de Ciències del Clima (ES), South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (ZA), Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Astronomical Observatory (RS), Universitat de Barcelona (ES), National Institute for Astrophysics (IT), University of Amsterdam (NL)
National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, U.S. Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Yale University, University of California, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Vanderbilt University, Ohio State University, California Institute of Technology, University of Utah, University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Notre Dame, University of Portsmouth, New Mexico State University, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, York University, University of Oxford, European Commission, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Office of Science, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Colorado Boulder, Science and Technology Facilities Council, Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Division of Astronomical Sciences, High Energy Physics, Laboratory Directed Research and Development, Fermilab, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Openalex Percentile: Top 74%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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