Open AccessThe effect of point sources on satellite observations of the cosmic microwave background
Author(s) -
Hobson M.P.,
Barreiro R.B.,
Toffolatti L.,
Lasenby A.N.,
Sanz J.,
Jones A.W.,
Bouchet F.R.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.1999.02546.x
Subject(s) - cosmic microwave background , physics , planck , astrophysics , astronomy , satellite , galaxy , cosmic background radiation , sunyaev–zel'dovich effect , galaxy cluster , optics , anisotropy
We study the effect of extragalactic point sources on satellite observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). In order to separate the contributions resulting from different foreground components, a Fourier‐space maximum‐entropy method is applied to simulated observations by the Planck Surveyor satellite. In addition to point sources, the simulations include emission from the CMB and the kinetic and thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effects from galaxy clusters, as well as Galactic dust, free–free and synchrotron emission. We find that the main input components are faithfully recovered and, in particular, that the quality of the CMB reconstruction is only slightly reduced by the presence of point sources. In addition, we find that it is possible to recover accurate point source catalogues at each of the Planck Surveyor observing frequencies.