Completeness of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) Local Volume Sample
2023
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT SERIES
DOI
10.3847/1538-4365/acdd06
We introduce the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) Local Volume Sample (NED-LVS), a subset of similar to 1.9 million objects with distances out to 1000Mpc. We use UV and IR fluxes available in NED from all-sky surveys to derive physical properties, and estimate the completeness relative to the expected local luminosity density. The completeness relative to near-IR luminosities (which traces a galaxy's stellar mass) is roughly 100% at D< 30 Mpc and remains moderate (70%) out to 300 Mpc. For brighter galaxies (greater than or similar to L-*), NED-LVS is similar to 100% complete out to similar to 400Mpc. When compared to other local Universe samples (GLADE and HECATE), all three are similar to 100% complete below 30Mpc. At distances beyond similar to 80 Mpc, NED-LVS is more complete than both GLADE and HECATE by similar to 10%-20%. NED-LVS is the underlying sample for the NED gravitational-wave follow-up service (NED-GWF), which provides prioritized lists of host candidates for GWevents within minutes of alerts issued by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration. We test the prioritization of galaxies in the volume of GW170817 by three physical properties, where we find that both stellar mass and inverse specific star formation rate place the correct host galaxy in the top 10. In addition, NED-LVS can be used for a wide variety of other astrophysical studies: galaxy evolution, star formation, large-scale structure, galaxy environments, and more. The data in NED are updated regularly, and NED-LVS will be updated concurrently. Consequently, NED-LVS will continue to provide an increasingly complete sample of galaxies for a multitude of astrophysical research areas for years to come.