Planck PCCS2: Catalog of Compact Sources Detected at 353 GHz

The full-duration Planck mission (2009-2013) mapped the entire sky across frequencies from 30 to 857 GHz. The Second Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources (PCCS2) lists discrete Galactic and extragalactic objects detected in these single-frequency maps, superseding earlier versions. It was produced by the European Space Agency and NASA, with improved processing increasing the number of objects for a target 80% reliability.

Use Cases

• Separating Galactic foreground emissions from the cosmic microwave background based on multi-frequency detection.
• Studying the properties of extragalactic compact sources detected in submillimeter wavelengths.
• Analyzing source polarization using the polarized flux densities and orientation angles included for seven channels.
• Creating high-reliability subsamples of sources from the PCCS2 catalog covering most of the sky.

Strengths

• Covers the entire sky, providing a full-sky survey.
• Includes polarization measurements for seven Planck channels.
• Supersedes earlier catalogs with improved data processing and increased number of objects.
• Operated across a broad frequency range from 30 to 857 GHz.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

European Space Agency (ESA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Collection Method

Detections from single-frequency maps from the full-duration Planck space mission.

Time Range

Mission data from 2009 to 2013.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 19:05:05.477095; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Entire sky.