RCW 38: Chandra X-Ray Catalog of a Young Stellar Cluster

460 X-ray sources detected by the Chandra observatory in a 96.7-ks observation of the young, massive stellar cluster RCW 38. The catalog, created by NASA's HEASARC in 2007, includes 360 confirmed cluster members with luminosity and variability data, and cross-matches to near-infrared counterparts. The observation was conducted on 2001 December 10-11 using the ACIS instrument.

Use Cases

• Analyze stellar X-ray luminosity distributions based on the reported range from 10^30 to 10^33.5 erg/s.
• Study flare activity and variability in young stars based on the reported percentages of flaring and variable cluster members.
• Investigate the relationship between gas and dust absorption in young stellar objects using the derived N_H to A_V ratio.
• Model cluster structure and density based on the reported central density of about 400 X-ray sources pc^-2 and estimated total membership.
• Cross-reference X-ray sources with near-infrared data from 2MASS or VLT based on the 160 identified NIR counterparts.

Strengths

• Contains 460 detected X-ray sources with 360 confirmed as cluster members.
• Provides specific observational parameters, including a 96.7-ks exposure time and a 16.9' x 16.9' field of view.
• Includes derived physical properties like luminosity ranges, absorption column densities, and flare/variability statistics.
• Offers cross-matching data, with NIR counterparts identified for 349 of the X-ray sources.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The table does not include results from quartile or spectral analyses presented in other tables of the source paper.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), HEASARC

Collection Method

Merger of tables from a reference paper based on Chandra ACIS observations.

Time Range

Observation date: 2001 December 10-11.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 18:04:40.291800; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Aimpoint at 8 59 19.20, -47 30 22.0 (J2000.0), centered on the RCW 38 cluster.