5. SUMMARY

This paper presents the complete list of objects in the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample, a sample of extragalactic objects selected at 60µm from the IRAS all-sky survey. The observed slope of -1.49 ± 0.10 in the logN - logS relation at 60 µm confirms that the RBGS is statistically complete down to the limit of S₆₀ = 5.24 Jy. The properties of the RBGS objects were computed using the final release of the IRAS Level 1 Archive and thus the RBGS replaces the earlier BGS samples which were determined using older versions of the IRAS data products. The RBGS contains 39 objects which were not present in the BGS₁ + BGS₂, and 28 objects from the BGS₁ + BGS₂ have been dropped from the RBGS because their revised 60 µm flux densities are not greater than 5.24 Jy. Improved methods were used to measure the total IRAS flux densities of individual sources, resulting in typical changes of 5-25% when compared to previous values reported for the BGS₁ + BGS₂, with changes of up to a factor of 2 for the faintest sources at 12 µm and 25 µm. Better procedures for resolving position uncertainties and resolving cross-identifications with other galaxy catalogs resulted in name changes for ~ 7% of the previous BGS₁ + BGS₂ compilations. This work presents the most accurate estimates to date of the total IRAS flux densities and derived infrared luminosities of galaxies in the local Universe. Basic properties of the RBGS galaxies are summarized below.

1. The RBGS sample contains a total of 629 galaxies with S₆₀ > 5.24 Jy in an area of 37,657.5 square degrees (91.3% of the sky) covering the entire sky surveyed by IRAS down to Galactic latitude |b|= 5°;
2. Extended flux (> 0.77') at 12 µm, (> 0.78') at 25 µm, (> 1.44') at 60 µm, and (> 2.94') at 100 µmdetected in 61%, 54%, 48%, and 30% of the galaxies respectively.
3. The mean and median redshift for the entire RBGS sample is z = 0.0126 (cz = 3777 km s^-1) and z = 0.0082 (cz = 2458 km s^-1), respectively. The object with the highest redshift is IRAS 07251-0248 (z = 0.0876), and the object with the largest computed infrared luminosity in this local sample is Mrk 231 (L_ir = 3.2 × 10¹² L).
4. The bolometric infrared luminosity function, (L_ir), for infrared bright galaxies in the Local Universe remains best fit by a double power law, L, with = - 0.6 ± 0.1, and = - 2.2 ± 0.1 below and above L_ir ~ 10^10.5 L, respectively.

We thank George Helou for helpful discussions, and the anonymous referee for comments that improved the presentation of this material. This research made extensive use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Queries of the IRAS catalogs and scan coadd processing using SCANPI were supported by the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. DBS acknowledges support from a Senior Award from the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation and from the Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik as well as support from NASA grant NAG90-1217. JMM, DCK, and JS were supported by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA. JS and BTS are supported by the SIRTF Science Center at the California Institute of Technology; SIRTF is carried out at JPL, under contract with NASA.