An Updated Catalog of Giant Radio Sources

We present a catalog of 349 giant radio sources (GRSs including both galaxies and quasars). The database contains all giants known to date from the literature. These GRSs cover the redshift range of 0.016 < z < 3.22 and include radio sources of projected linear sizes larger than 0.7 Mpc, which extend up to 4.7 Mpc. We provide the principal parameters (i.e., exact position of the host in the sky, redshift, angular and projected linear size, red optical magnitude, radio morphology type, total radio flux density, and luminosity) for all the sources, as well as characteristics of the sample. Based on the distribution of GRSs in the sky, we identify regions where there is a paucity of giants, so that future surveys for this type of objects could concentrate primarily in these fields. From the analysis presented here, we estimate a lower limit for the expected number of GRSs as about 2000, for the resolution and sensitivity limits of FIRST, NRAO VLA Sky Survey and Sloan Digital Sky Survey surveys. Compared with earlier compilations, there is a significant increase in the number of large giants with sizes >2 Mpc, as well as those at high redshifts with z > 1. We discuss aspects of their evolution and suggest that these are consistent with evolutionary models.