Extragalactic Point Sources and the Planck Surveyor Mission

We review estimates of small scale fluctuations due to extragalactic point sources in the Planck Surveyor frequency bands. While our undestanding of the spectral and evolutionary properties of these sources is far from complete, conservative estimates allow us to confidently conclude that, in the frequency range 100–200 GHz, their contaminating effect is well below the expected anisotropy level of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), down to angular scales of at least ≃ 10′. Hence, an accurate subtraction of foreground fluctuations is not critical for the determination of the CMB power spectrum up to multipoles l ≃ 1000. In any case, Planck’s wide frequency coverage will allow to carefully control foreground contributions. On the other hand, the all sky surveys at 9 frequencies, spanning the range 30–900 GHz, will be unique in providing complete samples comprising from several hundreds to many thousands of extragalactic sources, selected in an essentially unexplored frequency region. New classes of sources may be revealed in these data. The familiar “flat”-spectrum radio sources should show spectral features carrying essential information on their physical properties. Crucial information will be provided to understand the nature of radio sources with strongly inverted spectra. Scenarios for the cosmological evolution of galaxies will be extensively tested.