HerMES: 500 Micron Extragalactic Source Catalog from Herschel

A legacy survey mapping 380 square degrees of sky across nested fields ranging from 0.01 to 20 square degrees. The Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) used the SPIRE instrument at 250, 350, and 500 microns to capture dust-reprocessed radiation from star formation. Data was produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling galaxy spectral energy distributions based on multi-band infrared photometry.
• Studying the relationship between dust-obscured and unobscured star formation rates.
• Identifying high-redshift galaxies via their far-infrared emission.
• Analyzing the spatial distribution of star-forming galaxies across nested survey fields.

Strengths

• Covers a total survey area of 380 square degrees.
• Provides observations in three specific far-infrared wavelengths (250, 350, and 500 microns).
• Data originates from the Herschel Space Observatory, a major ESA mission with NASA participation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is provided in a BIN format which may require specialized tools to read.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Observations from the SPIRE instrument on the Herschel Space Observatory.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 17:01:03.097654; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Extragalactic sky survey across multiple nested fields.