Abstract
We present results of a search for giant radio galaxies (GRGs) larger than 1 Mpc in projected size. We designed a computer algorithm to identify contiguous emission regions, large and elongated enough to serve as GRG candidates, and applied it to the entire 1.4-GHz NRAO VLA Sky survey (NVSS) image atlas. Subsequent visual inspection of 1,000 such regions revealed 15 new GRGs, as well as many other candidate GRGs, some of them previously reported, for which no redshift was known. Our optical spectroscopy of 25 host galaxies with two 2.1-m telescopes in Mexico, and four others with the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), yielded another 24 GRGs. We also obtained higher-resolution radio images with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array for some unconfirmed GRG candidates.
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Acknowledgements
ISB, CARR, HA & JPTP were supported by DAIP-UG grant #318/13, and ISB by travel grants from CONACyT and Univ. de Guanajuato. EFJA is grateful to Academia Mexicana de Ciencias (AMC) for a summer student grant. We appreciate the help of R. F. Maldonado Sánchez in the inspection of radio survey images. This work is based upon observations acquired at Obs. Astron. Nacional, San Pedro Mártir (OAN-SPM), B.C., Mexico, at the Obs. Astrofísico G. Haro (OAGH), Cananea, Son., Mexico, and with the Gran Telescopio Canarias, La Palma, Spain. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
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Santiago-Bautista, I.d.C. et al. (2016). A Search for Giant Radio Galaxy Candidates and Their Radio-Optical Follow-up. In: Napolitano, N., Longo, G., Marconi, M., Paolillo, M., Iodice, E. (eds) The Universe of Digital Sky Surveys. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, vol 42. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19330-4_36
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19330-4_36
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