Astrophysics (Index)About

Two Micron All-sky Survey

(2MASS)
(near-infrared survey of both hemispheres)

The Two Micron All-sky Survey was a near-infrared survey of the entire sky by two dedicated telescopes, at Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, Mount Hopkins, Arizona and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, with observations carried out between 1997 and 2001. The sky was imaged in three passbands: J (1.25 μm), H (1.65 μm), and Ks (2.17 μm), i.e., the JHK photometric system. Final data was released in 2003. Targets included galaxies obscured by Milky Way light, brown dwarfs, low mass stars, and general cataloging. It produced a astronomical catalog of over three million objects and many 2MASS designators of objects are now in common use.

The name 2MASS XSC (for 2MASS Extended Source Catalog) is a 2MASS-derived catalog of galaxies and other extended sources.


Note there was a much-earlier (1969) effort with a similar name, the Two Micron Sky Survey. It is not mentioned nearly as often, but its name could confuse someone unaware of it.


(survey,infrared,NSF,galaxies,stars,all sky,past)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2MASS
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/
https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/Missions/2mass.html
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006AJ....131.1163S/abstract
https://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/publications/den2.ps
http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/catalogs/tmxsc.html
WaveLFreqPhoton
Energy
  
1.25μm240THz992meVbeginTwo Micron All-sky Survey
2.17μm138THz571meVendTwo Micron All-sky Survey
PrefixExample  
2M2M1207abbreviated
2MA2MA 1835-3259abbreviated
2MASP2MASP J0345432+254023prototype survey
2MASS2MASS J16264502-2423077 
2MASSI2MASSI J0937347+293142incremental release
2MASSP2MASSP J0345432+254023should be "2MASP"
2MASSW2MASSW J0746425+200032working database
2MASX2MASX J00482185-2507365"Extended source catalogue"
2MUCD2MUCD 10390ultracool dwarf

Referenced by pages:
2M1207
2MASS Photometric Redshift Catalog (2MPZ)
astronomical survey
Bologna Catalog of Globular Clusters (Bol)
Elias 2-27
Extragalactic Distance Database (EDD)
Infrared Survey Facility (IRSF)
IPAC
JHK photometric system (JHK)
LHS 1140
SIMP
stellar designation
Teegarden's Star
TRAPPIST-1
TW Hydrae association (TWA)
Two Micron Sky Survey (IRC)
WISE 1506+7027

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