C2D Candidate YSO OFF-CLOUD Catalog: Young Stellar Objects in Five Molecular Clouds

Spitzer's C2D Legacy Program observed sources from molecular cores to protoplanetary disks using three instruments. The Candidate YSO OFF-CLOUD Catalog lists candidate young stellar objects in five nearby large molecular clouds, derived from the Full Catalog using a published methodology. The dataset was last updated on 2026-03-13 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Use Cases

• Identify candidate protostars and substellar objects based on infrared observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope.
• Study the evolution of circumstellar dust, the raw material for planetary cores, in systems up to about 10 Myr old.
• Compare star-forming environments across five different molecular clouds: Chamaeleon II, Lupus, Ophiuchus, Perseus, and Serpens.
• Analyze the relationship between cloud mass, stellar mass, and the formation of young stellar objects.

Strengths

• Data originates from the Spitzer Legacy Program, which used all three Spitzer instruments (IRAC, MIPS, and IRS).
• Targets about 190 systems likely to be in early stages of planetary system formation.
• Surveys five of the nearest large molecular clouds for new candidate objects.
• Methodology for catalog derivation is described in a referenced scientific publication (Harvey et al. 2007b).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope's Cores to Disks (C2D) Legacy Program.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 19:40:42.603658; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Five molecular clouds: Chamaeleon II, Lupus, Ophiuchus, Perseus, and Serpens.