The 5XMM-DR15 catalogue is significantly different from previous versions of the XMM-Newton serendipitous source catalogue. This version has been produced following a rereduction of all of the data that was publicly available as of 1st November 2024. Contrary to previous releases, there is only a single version of the 5XMM-DR15 catalogue, which is a stacked catalogue of all of the XMM-Newton data, containing one line of information corresponding to the stacked source and then subsequent lines with information per observation, providing either a detection or an upper limit. The stacking procedure has been significantly improved with regards to previous versions and many new added-value products are also provided, including for the first time the Optical Monitor (OM) detections when a counterpart to the X-ray source is identified, a measure of the OM long-term variability for each filter and source classification, along with further multi-wavelength information, notably WISE and Gaia counterparts where they exist, and a link to further tables with other multi-wavelength data. Also new in 5XMM-DR15 are X-ray source classification, simple spectral fitting, long-term variability of the X-ray source, and the photometric redshifts for extragalactic sources, along with the spectral redshift, when it is available. 5XMM-DR15 contains source detections drawn from 14616 XMM-Newton EPIC observations, covering an energy interval from 0.2 keV to 12 keV. These observations were made between 2000 January 19 and 2024 October 14 and all datasets were publicly available by 2024 November 1, but not all public observations are included in this catalogue (see below for more information).
Should you use the catalogue for your research and publish the results, please use the acknowledgement below and cite the paper (available currently in draft version) describing 5XMM (Webb, Traulsen et al., 2026).
As well as the fits formats of the catalogue distributed below, the following Web-based user interfaces will allow filtering and searching of the catalogue (and give access to all or selected associated data products):
The SSC Catalogue Home Page (this page), XSA, and HEASARC allow download of the catalogue file in (binary) FITS. Summary pages and products are available in the IRAP catalogue server.
The cross-correlation products of potential counterparts at other wavelengths for 5XMM-DR15 are provided through the XCAT-DB and the IRAP catalogue server.
We also provide Multi-Order-Coverage maps (MOCs) for 5XMM-DR15. MOCs for individual observations in fits format can be downloaded via the catalogue server (identified through their OBSIDs). The MOC covering the whole of 5XMM-DR15 field is available here. Amongst other ways to use the MOCs, we recommend the python tool MOCpy. The previously provided EPIC flux maps for each observation, where each point on the map provides the limiting flux for a source detected at 3 sigma in the 0.2-12.0 keV band (assuming a power law spectrum with a photon index of 1.42 and an nH of 1.7x1020 cm-2) are now provided as a standard product through the XSA
.| 5XMM-DR15 | 4XMM-DR14 | Increment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of observations | 14616 | 13864 | 752 |
| Observing interval | 19-Jan-00 -- 14-Oct-24 | 01-Feb-00 -- 16-Nov-23 | 11 months |
| Sky coverage, taking overlaps into account ( ≥ 1ksec exposure) | 1397 sq.deg | 1383 sq.deg | 14 sq.deg |
| Number of unique sources | 818656 | 692109 | 126547 |
| Number of detections/upper limits | 2578752 | 1035832 | 1542920 |
| Number of 'clean' sources (i.e., summary flag < 3) | 764140 | 584899 | 179241 |
| Number of clean extended detections (SUM_FLAG<3) | 25845 | 22147 | 3698 |
| Number of detections with extracted detection spectra | 408901 | 372603 | 36298 |
| Number of detections with extracted detection timeseries | 408694 | 372313 | 36381 |
| Number of detections where probability of timeseries being constant is < 1 × 10-5 | 12330 | 8380 | 3950 |
The median flux in the total photon energy band (0.2 - 12 keV) of the catalogue detections is ~ 1.3 × 10-14 erg cm-2 s-1; in the soft energy band (0.2 - 2 keV) the median flux is ~ 2.9 × 10-15, and in the hard band (2 - 12 keV) it is ~ 7.6 × 10-15.
About 30% of the sources have features that may cause spurious detections (mainly the wings of bright sources and large extended emission), and it is strongly recommended to use a source filter based on the summary flag column. The recipe STACK_DET_ML > 10 && SUM_FLAG < 2 restricts the catalogue to include very few spurious detections.
The 5XMM-DR15 catalogue, released on 2026 June 9th, is available in several formats:
Please read the Watchouts section before using the catalogues.
| 5XMM_DR15cat_v1.0.fits.gz | FITS binary | 2.4 GB | MD5: f27ab36e92d6504083913b24cf44092f | full binary catalogue; recommended for more in-depth studies (includes information of all detections) | 3397248 rows |
| 5XMM_DR15cat_source_v1.0.fits.gz | FITS binary | 836 MB | MD5: 3b58ee2c7c8dbe86009b65e23c35a534 | Source catalogue only, suited for studies of unique sources (individual detection information is not included) | 818656 rows |
The source version of the catalogue contains one row per unique source, 818656 (while the the main catalogue has one row per source, followed by subsequent rows with information stemming from each detection or upper limit and thus has 3397248 rows), but with the same number of columns (421). In this version of the catalogue, some columns are empty as they provide information on a detection basis. The catalogue also contains a column with links to the IRAP catalogue server summary pages. In the case of sources with multiple detections, the summary page of the best detection is selected (i.e., the detection with the largest exposure time, summed over all cameras), and the summary page gives cross-links to the other detections.
A separate file is also provided (table below) which contains key details about each stack used in the construction of the 5XMM-DR15 catalogue. See the list of stacks.
| 5xmmdr15_obslist.fits.gz | FITS binary | 2.6 MB | MD5: 0fad44494fa100c8db421809a15ed097 | Summary table of stacks used in the catalogue |
The User Guide for the 5XMM-DR15 catalogue contains details of the catalogue production process and content. Here are quick links to
1) The median statistical position error for the 5XMM-DR15 sources (RADEC_ERR/√2) is 1.08", whereas for 4XMM-DR9 it was 0.8". This is because the astrometric correction carried out before stacking was not propagated to the final positions. This will be corrected in 5XMM-DR16.
2) For 5XMM-DR15 the identification of warm pixels (pixels that can become hot during a limited period of time) was carried out following the source detection on stacked data (indicated in the 10th detector flag, PN_FLAG, M1_FLAG or M2_FLAG) as T (true) and then propagated to the SUM_FLAG to indicate a possibly spurious detection/source. In versions from DR16, this step will be carried out before the stacked source detection.
With the 5XMM catalogue, IAU name nomenclature includes the designator, 5XMM. The IAU name is provided in the catalogue. The correct, full nomenclature for a specific detection from the catalogues is the IAU name, followed by a colon and the observation identification number, that is:"5XMM Jhhmmss.sSddmmss:obs_id".
The production of the 5XMM-DR15 catalogue is a collaborative project involving the whole XMM-Newton SSC Consortium along with members of the XMM2ATHENA project:
The SSC team are grateful to the XMM-Newton SOC for their support in the catalogue production activities.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant
agreement number 101004168, the XMM2ATHENA project.
The SSC acknowledges the use of the TOPCAT and STILTS software packages (written by Mark Taylor, University of Bristol) in the production and testing of the 5XMM-DR15 catalogue.