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Herschel SPIRE Point Source Catalog: 250 microns

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

The Herschel-SPIRE instrument mapped about 9% of the sky in Submillimeter broad-band filters centered at 250, 350, and 500 microns (1199, 857, 600 GHz) with spatial resolutions of 17.9", 24.2", 35.4" respectively. In total, we used the 6878 standard configuration scan maps that are available, including calibration observations. The SPIRE Point Source Catalog contains the result of a systematic and homogeneous source extraction on those maps using 4 different photometry extraction methods. Only regions affected by strong Galactic emission, mostly in the Galactic Plane, were excluded, as they tested the limits of the available source extraction methods. Aimed primarily at point sources, that allow for the best photometric accuracy, the catalog contains also significant fractions of slightly extended sources up to a limit. With most SPIRE maps being confusion limited, uncertainties in flux densities were established as a function of structure noise and flux density, based on the results of artificial source insertion experiments into real data along a range of celestial backgrounds. Many sources have been rejected that do not pass the imposed SNR threshold, especially at flux densities approaching the extragalactic confusion limit. A range of additional flags provide information on the reliability of the flux information, as well as the spatial extent and orientation of a source. Users are encouraged to check the flux density estimates of all 4 methods and follow the guidelines given in the Explanatory Supplement regarding their interpretation for point- and extended sources. For tracing back catalog objects to the originally contributing detections in SPIRE observations, a cross identification table is available that provides the relevant observation identifiers used by the Herschel Science Archive. For further details on catalog construction, detailed content, and validation, please see the Explanatory Supplement.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025
Publisher NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive
Maintainer
Identifier ivo://irsa.ipac/herschel/catalog/spsc/spsc250
Data Last Modified 2025-09-10
Category Astrophysics
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 7c75732f-912a-41ca-91e5-8d0760c5f933
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/Herschel/SPSC/gator_docs/spsc_colDescriptions.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 36e8ffffe33bd732a93b3280affab196ea605200a0f4dfa68fd19c180304c02a
Source Schema Version 1.1

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