juliensimon/tevcat-tev-gamma-ray

---
license: cc-by-4.0
pretty_name: "TeVCat — TeV Gamma-Ray Source Catalog"
language:
- en
description: "Catalog of astronomical sources detected at very high energies (>50 GeV) by ground-based gamma-ray telescopes, from the TeVCat reference catalog via NASA HEASARC."
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
tags:
- space
- gamma-ray
- tev
- astronomy
- physics
- open-data
- tabular-data
size_categories:
- n<1K
configs:
- config_name: default
data_files:
- split: train
path: data/tevcat.parquet
default: true
---

# TeVCat — TeV Gamma-Ray Source Catalog

*Part of the [Astronomy Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/astronomy-datasets-69c24caf2f17e36128946743) collection on Hugging Face.*

Catalog of **322** astronomical sources detected at very high energies
(>50 GeV) by ground-based gamma-ray telescopes such as H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS.
TeVCat is the reference catalog for the ground-based VHE gamma-ray community.

## Dataset description

Very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy probes the most extreme environments
in the universe: supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae, active galactic nuclei,
and gamma-ray binaries. TeVCat maintains the canonical list of sources detected
above ~50 GeV by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes and water Cherenkov
detectors.

This dataset is sourced from the HEASARC mirror of TeVCat and includes sky
coordinates, flux measurements, redshifts, and source classifications.

## Quick stats

- **322** TeV gamma-ray sources
- **84** with measured redshift
- **179** with flux measurements

## Top source types

- **116** UNID
- **56** HBL
- **32** PWN
- **13** Shell
- **11** FSRQ

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/tevcat-tev-gamma-ray", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

print(f"{len(df):,} TeV gamma-ray sources")

# Sky map
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, ax = plt.subplots(subplot_kw={"projection": "aitoff"})
import numpy as np
ra_rad = np.deg2rad(df["ra"].dropna() - 180)
dec_rad = np.deg2rad(df["dec"].dropna())
ax.scatter(ra_rad, dec_rad, s=5, alpha=0.7)
ax.set_title("TeV Gamma-Ray Sky")
ax.grid(True)
```

## Data source

All data comes from [TeVCat](http://tevcat.uchicago.edu/) (Wakely & Horan),
accessed via NASA's [HEASARC TAP service](https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/xamin/vo/tap/).

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Related datasets

- [gamma-ray-bursts](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gamma-ray-bursts) — Fermi GBM Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog
- [pulsar-catalog](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/pulsar-catalog) — ATNF Pulsar Catalogue

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{tevcat_tev_gamma_ray,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {TeVCat — TeV Gamma-Ray Source Catalog},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/tevcat-tev-gamma-ray},
note = {Based on TeVCat (Wakely & Horan) via NASA HEASARC}
}
```

## License

[CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)