EROS light curve data base

TL;DR

The EROS light curve database provides extensive, publicly accessible photometric data of over 86 million stars from 1996 to 2003, supporting time domain astronomy and transient source research.

Contribution

This paper presents a comprehensive, publicly available database of light curves from the EROS-2 survey, covering multiple stellar fields and enabling future astronomical studies.

Findings

Over 86 million stars monitored with detailed light curves.

Data covers multiple regions including LMC, SMC, Galactic Bulge, and spiral arms.

Public release of light curves enhances research on variable objects.

Abstract

The EROS project (Exp\'erience de Recherche d'Objets Sombres) carried out photometric surveys of dense stellar fields towards the Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC), the Galactic Bulge and Galactic spiral arms, over the period 1990-2003. The main goal of the experiment was to search for the Galactic Dark Matter in the form of massive compact objects (machos), through the gravitational microlensing effect. The historical record of the flux variations of the monitored stars by EROS-2 will be a unique asset for time domain astronomy and to complement current and future searches of transient sources. We describe the set of light curves obtained by EROS-2 program over the years 1996 to 2003, monitoring more than 86 million stars, which is publicly released through the Centre de Donn\'ees de Strasbourg (CDS). The numbers of light curves in this data set are 28.7 and 4.0 million in LMC, respectively SMC, 42.9 million in the Galactic Bulge and 10.4 million towards the Galactic spiral arms, with several hundred measurements for each object. Data from EROS-1 is also being released. The object catalog and light curves and images are accessible through the CDS portal. This will be useful for checking the past behavior of newly discovered variable objects.