HESS: High Energy Stereoscopic System Gamma-Ray Source Catalog

H.E.S.S. is a system of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes investigating cosmic gamma rays in the 100 GeV energy range. The catalog, first created in April 2008, contains the H.E.S.S. source list and is maintained by NASA HEASARC, updated within one week of changes to the original source. The instrument is located in Namibia and began operations in 2002, with the full four-telescope array operational by December 2003.

Use Cases

• Identify and catalog gamma-ray sources based on telescope observations.
• Study the intensity of cosmic gamma-ray sources relative to the Crab nebula flux.
• Analyze data from a stereoscopic telescope system for high-energy astrophysics research.

Strengths

• Catalog is updated regularly, with this HEASARC version updated within one week of the source updates.
• Based on observations from a Nobel Prize-recognized field (cosmic radiation discovery by Victor Hess).
• Data originates from a specific instrument (H.E.S.S.) with a known location (Namibia) and operational timeline (first telescope 2002).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

NASA HEASARC, based on the H.E.S.S. source list created by Dr. W. Hofmann.

Collection Method

Derived from an HTML table maintained by the H.E.S.S. collaboration.

Time Range

Observations from the H.E.S.S. instrument, operational since 2002.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 17:23:04.386045; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Data from the H.E.S.S. telescope array located in Namibia, near the Gamsberg.