WENSS galaxies

New global radio surveys like the NVSS at radio frequency 1.4 GHz and WENSS at frequency 325 MHZ have opened up enormous possibilities. Our group at the Istituto di Radioastronomia, Bologna, has been involved in the study of bright radio galaxies that were extracted from the WENSS survey. A first sample of such radio galaxies, based on the WENSS minisurvey.
(see Rengelink et al. 1997, A&AS, 124, 259) At present we are (unfortunately rather slowly) extending this sample to the whole WENSS Survey, but now utilizing also the enormous, and ever expanding quantity of optical data that is available in NED. Also it has become possible to hunt for particular kinds of objects, for example, radio sources in their final phases. Since such sources are expected to have very steep radio spectra the WENSS survey is ideal to find dying radio galaxies. A first (small) harvest of dying sources is discussed in a paper referenced below. This work is continuing.

• Bright galaxies from WENSS. I. The minisurvey
  (Optical identification of WENSS sources with bright galaxies)
• In search of dying radio sources in the local universe
  (In search of dying radio sources using WENSS and NVSS)