The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). Its legacy of UV surveys, and science highlights

Abstract

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) imaged the sky in the Ultraviolet (UV) for almost a decade, delivering the first sky surveys at these wavelengths. Its database contains far-UV (FUV, $\lambda$${}_{eff}$ $\sim$ 1528Å) and near-UV (NUV, $\lambda$${}_{eff}$ $\sim$ 2310Å) images of most of the sky, including deep UV-mapping of extended galaxies, over 200 million source measurements, and more than 100,000 low-resolution UV spectra. The GALEX archive will remain a long-lasting resource for statistical studies of hot stellar objects, QSOs, star-forming galaxies, nebulae and the interstellar medium. It provides an unprecedented road-map for planning future UV instrumentation and follow-up observing programs in the UV and at other wavelengths. We review the characteristics of the GALEX data, and describe final catalogs and available tools, that facilitate future exploitation of this database. We also recall highlights from the science results uniquely enabled by GALEX data so far.

accepted for publication in ApSS

References in corpus (9)

• UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe
• The GALEX Ultraviolet Atlas of Nearby Galaxies
• A Search for Extended Ultraviolet Disk (XUV-disk) Galaxies in the Local Universe
• Statistical Properties of the GALEX/SDSS matched source catalogs, and classification of the UV sources
• The Star Formation and Extinction Co-Evolution of UV-Selected Galaxies over 0.05<z<1.2
• GALEX high time-resolution ultraviolet observations of dMe flare events
• The GALEX Time Domain Survey I. Selection and Classification of Over a Thousand UV Variable Sources
• The detection of M-dwarf UV flare events in the GALEX data archives
• An Ultraviolet Study of Star-Forming Regions in M31

Cited by in corpus (42)

• Revised Catalog of GALEX Ultraviolet Sources. I. The All-sky Survey: GUVcat_AIS
• DustPedia: Multiwavelength Photometry and Imagery of 875 Nearby Galaxies in 42 Ultraviolet--Microwave Bands
• The eROSITA Final Equatorial-Depth Survey (eFEDS): Identification and characterization of the counterparts to the point-like sources
• The physical properties of AM CVn stars: new insights from Gaia DR2
• GALEX Diffuse Observations of the Sky: The Data
• A Catalog of GALEX Ultraviolet Emission from Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars
• Composite Spectral Energy Distributions and Infrared-Optical Colors of Type 1 and Type 2 Quasars
• Zodiacal Exoplanets in Time (ZEIT) II. A "Super-Earth" Orbiting a Young K Dwarf in the Pleiades Neighborhood
• The White Dwarf Binary Pathways Survey -- VIII: a post common envelope binary with a massive white dwarf and an active G-type secondary star
• Ultraviolet stellar population of the old open cluster M67 (NGC 2682)
• WALLABY Early Science -- IV. ASKAP HI imaging of the nearby galaxy IC 5201
• A universal average spectral energy distribution for quasars from optical to extreme ultraviolet
• The Ultraviolet Extinction Map and Dust Property at High Galactic Latitude
• Predicting Lyman-alpha and Mg II Fluxes from K and M Dwarfs Using GALEX Ultraviolet Photometry
• The Timescale-Dependent Color Variability of Quasars Viewed with GALEX
• The White Dwarf Binary Pathways Survey -- IX. Three long period white dwarf plus subgiant binaries
• Matched photometric catalogs of GALEX UV sources with Gaia DR2 and SDSS DR14 databases (GUVmatch)
• X-ray luminosity-star formation rate scaling relation: Constraints from the eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey (eFEDS)
• The Stellar Populations of HII galaxies: A tale of three bursts
• Catalog of Planetary Nebulae detected by GALEX and corollary optical surveys
• Discovery of an old nova shell surrounding the cataclysmic variable V1315 Aql
• CircleZ: Reliable Photometric redshifts for AGN computed using only photometry from Legacy Survey Imaging for DESI
• AllBRICQS: the All-sky BRIght, Complete Quasar Survey
• On the properties of compact groups identified in different photometric bands
• A data base of synthetic photometry in the GALEX ultraviolet bands for the stellar sources observed with the International Ultraviolet Explorer
• A high redshift population of galaxies at the North Ecliptic Pole: unveiling the main sequence of dusty galaxies
• CO Multi-line Imaging of Nearby Galaxies (COMING). XII. CO-to-H${}_2$ Conversion Factor and Dust-to-Gas Ratio
• UV bright red-sequence galaxies: how do UV upturn systems evolve in redshift and stellar mass?
• Galaxy evolution in nearby galaxy groups. III. A GALEX view of NGC 5846, the largest group in the local universe
• The XMM Deep Survey in the CDF-S VII. UV catalogue of the Optical Monitor observations
• Kathryns Wheel: A spectacular galaxy collision discovered in the Galactic neighbourhood
• Variation of the ultraviolet extinction law across the Taurus-Auriga star forming complex. A GALEX based study
• Searching for Short-Timescale Variability in the Ultraviolet with the GALEX gPhoton Archive I.: Artifacts and Spurious Periodicities
• NUV Star Catalogue from the Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope Survey. First Release
• The analysis of effective galaxies number count for Chinese Space Station Optical Survey(CSS-OS) by image simulation
• A Virgo Environmental Survey Tracing Ionised Gas Emission. VESTIGE VIII. Bridging the cluster-ICM-galaxy evolution at small scales
• Dust Scattering from the Taurus Molecular Cloud
• Hot Stars in the GALEX Ultraviolet Sky Surveys (GUVcat_AISxSDSS_HS) and the Binary Fraction of Hot Evolved Stars
• Radio-FIR correlation- A probe into cosmic ray propagation in the nearby galaxy IC 342
• The effects of star formation history in the SFR-M relation of HII galaxies
• Signatures of diffuse interstellar gas in the Galaxy Evolution Explorer all sky survey
• UV bright red-sequence galaxies: a comparative study between UV upturn and UV weak systems