Green Bank Telescope 31-GHz Radio Source Catalog of 3165 Extragalactic Objects

A catalog of 3165 known extragalactic radio sources observed at 31 GHz over 143 square degrees of the sky. The data were collected using the 100m Green Bank Telescope in 2006 and the 40m Owens Valley Radio Observatory telescope from 2000 to 2002, primarily targeting active galactic nuclei. This table, created by NASA HEASARC in June 2012, contains results from the GBT campaign covering 1490 sources and characterizes the spectral index distribution to predict source counts.

Use Cases

• Modeling the impact of discrete source foregrounds on arcminute-scale anisotropy measurements based on the 31-GHz survey.
• Analyzing the distribution of 1.4-31 GHz spectral indices for extragalactic active galactic nuclei.
• Predicting 31-GHz source counts in the 1-4 mJy range based on the derived spectral-index distribution and 1.4GHz counts.
• Comparing detection rates and flux densities between observations from the GBT and OVRO telescopes.

Strengths

• Observations cover 3165 sources over a significant 143 square degree area of the sky.
• Reported error bars include quantified gain uncertainties (10% for GBT, 5% for OVRO).
• Detection flags are provided for sources with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 4 sigma.
• The catalog is derived from two observational campaigns with complementary telescopes, providing a basis for comparison.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count for the specific GBT table is not provided in the metadata.
• The data's last update timestamp is 2026-03-13; freshness should be verified against the original research.

Provenance

Source

NASA HEASARC, based on CDS Catalog J/ApJ/704/1433.

Collection Method

Radio telescope observations and maximum-likelihood analysis.

Time Range

GBT observations from 2006 February to May; OVRO observations from 2000 September through 2002 December.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 19:22:58.603306; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Observations cover 143 square degrees of the sky in fields observed by the Cosmic Background Imager.