WMAP Nine-Year Catalog: 501 Cosmic Microwave Background Point Sources

501 point sources identified across five frequency bands from 23 to 94 GHz, based on nine years of all-sky survey data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) between August 10, 2001 and August 10, 2010. The catalog was produced by NASA using a five-band search technique that filters maps to suppress CMB and Galactic foreground fluctuations. The analysis covers 83% of the sky, an increase from 78% in the five-year version.

Use Cases

• Cross-identifying radio and microwave sources based on the five-band flux density measurements.
• Analyzing source population statistics and evolution using the nine-year temporal coverage.
• Calibrating other astronomical surveys using the high-frequency point source catalog as a reference.
• Studying the suppression of CMB and Galactic foregrounds using the described harmonic space filtering method.

Strengths

• Covers 83% of the sky, an improvement from 78% in the five-year analysis.
• Contains 501 point sources, an increase from 471 in the previous seven-year catalog.
• Based on nine years of continuous survey data from a dedicated NASA satellite mission.
• Uses an improved beam template fitting method for more accurate flux measurements than earlier Gaussian fitting.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Flux density uncertainty calculations do not include additional uncertainty due to Eddington bias.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Data from the WMAP satellite's all-sky survey, processed with a five-band search and beam template fitting technique.

Time Range

From 10 Aug 2001 0:00 UT to 10 Aug 2010 0:00 UT, inclusive.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 19:54:18.076377; freshness should be verified.

Geography

All-sky coverage, excluding the Galactic plane and Magellanic cloud regions (83% of the sky).