wide binaries from Gaia DR2

<p>This is a catalog of&nbsp;378,488 wide binary candidates selected using data from Gaia DR2. The catalog construction procedure is similar to that outlined&nbsp;in <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018MNRAS.480.4884E/abstract">this</a> paper, but the search is extended to larger distances (d &lt; 1 kpc), lower astrometric SNR (parallax_over_error &gt; 10), and wider separations (s &lt; 1 pc).&nbsp;</p> <p>The included pdf shows the&nbsp;separation distribution, and the red dashed line shows an estimate of the contamination rate from chance alignments. For the full catalog, contamination is negligible at s &lt; 50,000 AU, but it becomes dominant at wider separations, such that it completely overwhelms the real binaries&nbsp;at s ~ 1 pc. It is, however, possible to construct subsamples&nbsp;that are pure out to wider separations by selecting binaries with (a) larger parallaxes, (b) higher astrometric SNR, or (c) larger plane-of-the-sky velocities with respect to the Sun.&nbsp;</p> <p>If you use this catalog for your research, please cite this dataset and the paper linked above. For questions or comments, contact Kareem El-Badry.&nbsp;</p>