Imaging Sources in the Third Realization of the International Celestial Reference Frame

The third iteration of the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF3) is made up of 4536 quasars observed at S/X bands using very-long-baseline interferometry. These sources are high-redshift quasars, typically between 1 < z < 2, that are believed to host active galactic nuclei at their centers. The position of compact radio sources can be determined better than sources with large amounts of extended radio structure. Here we report information on a series of 20 observations from 2017 January through December 2017 that were designed for precise astrometry and to monitor the structure of sources included in the ICRF3. We targeted 3627 sources over the one year campaign and found the median flux density of 2697 detected sources at S band is 0.13 Jy, and the median flux density of 3209 sources detected at X band is 0.09 Jy. We find that 70% of detected sources in our campaign are considered compact at X band and ideal for use in the ICRF and 89% of the 2615 sources detected at both frequencies have a flat spectral index, alpha > 0.5

Automated summary

ICRF3's third iteration consists of 4536 high-redshift quasars observed at S/X bands, with the majority of sources considered compact in the X band. The campaign in 2017 found that 89% of sources detected at both frequencies have a flat spectral index.