Planck PCCS2: All-Sky Catalog of Compact Sources at 545 GHz

Planck, a European Space Agency mission launched in 2009, mapped the sky across frequencies from 30 to 857 GHz. The Second Planck Catalogue of Compact Sources (PCCS2) lists discrete Galactic and extragalactic objects detected in single-frequency maps from the full mission, superseding earlier versions. It includes polarization measurements for seven channels and aims for 80% integral reliability.

Use Cases

• Cross-matching and validating extragalactic source catalogs based on all-sky submillimeter detections.
• Studying Galactic dust emission and foreground separation based on far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths.
• Analyzing source polarization properties based on polarized flux densities and orientation angles for seven channels.
• Improving completeness models for compact source detection based on the target 80% reliability metric.

Strengths

• Data from the full duration of the Planck mission, launched 14 May 2009, providing continuous measurements.
• Covers the entire sky across frequencies from 30 to 857 GHz with spatial resolutions from 33 to 5 arcminutes.
• Includes two subcatalogs (PCCS2 and PCCS2E) for handling regions with difficult diffuse emission.
• Supersedes previous versions (PCCS, ERCSC) with improved data processing and reduced noise levels.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

European Space Agency (ESA) mission with contributions from NASA.

Collection Method

Detections from single-frequency maps made by the Planck spacecraft's Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) and High Frequency Instrument (HFI).

Time Range

Observations initiated 12 August 2009 following the First Light Survey.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 19:19:14.317955; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Covers the entire sky.