C2D High Reliability STARS Catalog: 160 Targeted Young Stars

The C2D High Reliability STARS Catalog is a curated list of 160 targeted stars from the Cores to Disks (C2D) Spitzer Legacy Program. The C2D program used the Spitzer Space Telescope's IRAC, MIPS, and IRS instruments to observe sources from molecular cores to protoplanetary disks across five nearby molecular clouds. This catalog provides the most reliable source list, requiring good signal-to-noise detection in some bands, and was last updated on the datagov platform in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Identify candidate protostars and substellar objects based on infrared observations from 3.6 to 70 microns.
• Study the evolution of circumstellar dust, the raw material for planetary cores, in systems up to about 10 million years old.
• Analyze star-forming environments across a wide range of cloud masses and stellar masses.
• Validate source detections using the catalog's high reliability criteria based on signal-to-noise.

Strengths

• Derived from the multi-instrument C2D Spitzer Legacy Program, which observed about 150 compact cores and 190 young systems.
• Focuses on high reliability, requiring good signal-to-noise detection in some bands.
• Targets a specific set of 160 stars, providing a curated sample for analysis.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect observational bias inherent to the Spitzer telescope's instruments and targeted fields.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Observational data from the Spitzer Space Telescope's IRAC, MIPS, and IRS instruments as part of the Cores to Disks (C2D) Legacy Program.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 17:22:06.300185; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Observations include five of the nearest large molecular clouds and 160 targeted star systems.