The<i>IRAS</i>Revised Bright Galaxy Sample

Abstract

IRAS flux densities, redshifts, and infrared luminosities are reported for\nall sources identified in the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample (RBGS), a\ncomplete flux-limited survey of all extragalactic objects with total 60 micron\nflux density greater than 5.24 Jy, covering the entire sky surveyed by IRAS at\nGalactic latitude |b| &gt; 5 degrees. The RBGS includes 629 objects, with a median\n(mean) sample redshift of 0.0082 (0.0126) and a maximum redshift of 0.0876. The\nRBGS supersedes the previous two-part IRAS Bright Galaxy Samples, which were\ncompiled before the final ("Pass 3") calibration of the IRAS Level 1 Archive in\nMay 1990. The RBGS also makes use of more accurate and consistent automated\nmethods to measure the flux of objects with extended emission. Basic properties\nof the RBGS sources are summarized, including estimated total infrared\nluminosities, as well as updates to cross-identifications with sources from\noptical galaxy catalogs established using the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database\n(NED). In addition, an atlas of images from the Digitized Sky Survey with\noverlays of the IRAS position uncertainty ellipse and annotated scale bars is\nprovided for ease in visualizing the optical morphology in context with the\nangular and metric size of each object. The revised bolometric infrared\nluminosity function, phi(L_ir), for infrared bright galaxies in the local\nUniverse remains best fit by a double power law, phi(L_ir) ~ L_ir^alpha, with\nalpha = -0.6 (+/- 0.1), and alpha = -2.2 (+/- 0.1) below and above the\n"characteristic" infrared luminosity L_ir ~ 10^{10.5} L_solar, respectively.\n(Abridged)\n