C2D Full CLOUDS Catalog: Spitzer Telescope Observations of Five Molecular Clouds
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Description
Five of the nearest large molecular clouds (Chamaeleon II, Lupus, Ophiuchus, Perseus, Serpens) were surveyed by the Cores to Disks (C2D) Spitzer Legacy Program. The program used the IRAC, MIPS, and IRS instruments to observe about 150 known compact cores and about 190 young stellar systems, targeting sources as faint as 0.001 solar luminosities. This catalog, from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, provides the most complete but least reliable list of sources from those observations.
Use Cases
Identify candidate protostars and substellar objects based on infrared observations across five molecular clouds.
Study the evolution of circumstellar dust, the raw material for planetary cores, in systems up to about 10 million years old.
Analyze the correlation between cloud mass, stellar mass, and star-forming environment across a wide evolutionary sequence.
Cross-reference this source list with other catalogs to validate candidate objects.
Strengths
Observations span the evolutionary sequence from molecular cores to protoplanetary disks.
Targets about 150 known compact cores and about 190 young stellar systems.
Surveys five distinct molecular cloud regions, providing comparative data.
Limitations
Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
The catalog is described as the 'most complete but least reliable' list of sources.
Provenance
Source
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Collection Method
Observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope's IRAC, MIPS, and IRS instruments as part of the Cores to Disks (C2D) Legacy Program.
Time Range
Observations target systems with ages up to about 10 million years.
Freshness
Last updated 2026-03-13 20:02:54.520396; freshness should be verified.
Geography
Molecular clouds: Chamaeleon II, Lupus, Ophiuchus, Perseus, Serpens.
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