GLIMPSE I Catalog: Infrared Point Sources from the Galactic Plane Survey

Over 77,000 telescope pointings produced this catalog of infrared point sources from the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE I). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) created the catalog using the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), covering approximately 220 square degrees of the Milky Way's plane. The catalog was last updated in March 2026 and is designed for a reliability of at least 99.5%.

Use Cases

• Identifying and classifying stellar objects based on infrared photometry.
• Studying the distribution and density of point sources across specific galactic longitudes and latitudes.
• Analyzing photometric uncertainty and limiting magnitudes in regions of varying background and source density.
• Validating observation strategies for infrared astronomical surveys.

Strengths

• Survey covers approximately 220 square degrees of the Galactic plane.
• Catalog reliability is specified as ≥99.5%.
• Photometric uncertainty is typically less than 0.2 magnitudes.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), consisting of two 1.2-second integrations per position.

Time Range

Survey time was 400 hours.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 16:28:24.692614; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Galactic plane, covering latitude ±1° and longitude |l| = 10°–65°, plus an OSV region at l=284°.