IRAS Faint Source Catalog: Infrared Point Sources from Satellite Survey

173,044 infrared point sources detected by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) in unconfused regions of the sky. The Faint Source Catalog is at least 98.5% reliable at 12 and 25 microns and contains 99,973 sources not found in the more reliable but less sensitive IRAS Point Source Catalog. This version 2.0 was released in September 1990 and was recreated by NASA HEASARC in August 2005.

Use Cases

• Identify faint infrared point sources based on flux density measurements at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns.
• Cross-reference astronomical catalogs using the 99,973 sources unique to this catalog compared to the IRAS Point Source Catalog.
• Analyze source reliability and sensitivity trade-offs in satellite survey data processing.
• Study infrared sky regions with galactic latitude constraints (|b| >= 10° at 12/25µm, >=20° at 60µm).

Strengths

• Contains data for 173,044 point sources with quantified reliability (>=98.5% at 12/25µm, ~94% at 60µm).
• Sensitivity exceeds the IRAS Point Source Catalog by a factor of about 2.5.
• Includes Galactic coordinates added during the 2005 recreation by HEASARC.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Catalog is limited to unconfused sky regions and excludes sources detected only at 100 microns due to infrared cirrus.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) mission.

Collection Method

Produced by point-source filtering and coadding individual detector data streams using a trimmed-average algorithm.

Time Range

Survey data from the IRAS mission, catalog version released September 1990.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 17:38:22.961866; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Full sky survey with constraints on galactic latitude (|b| >= 10° at 12/25µm, >=20° at 60µm).