SAGE IRAC Archive: Spitzer Telescope Survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud

Over 6 million sources, including approximately 150,000 evolved stars and 50,000 young stellar objects, were revealed by the Spitzer Space Telescope's SAGE survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The archive, provided by NASA, contains source fluxes from IRAC bands at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 microns with a signal-to-noise threshold of 5. This data traces the life cycle of observable matter to study galaxy evolution.

Use Cases

• Modeling the lifecycle of observable matter in a galaxy based on the survey's stated goal.
• Identifying and classifying evolved stars based on the catalog of ~150,000 such sources.
• Studying young stellar object populations based on the catalog of ~50,000 YSOs.
• Analyzing the diffuse interstellar medium based on column density measurements > 1.2×10^21 cm^-2.
• Comparing source properties and completeness between the stricter catalog and the more inclusive archive criteria.

Strengths

• Contains over 6 million astronomical sources.
• Includes approximately 150,000 evolved stars and 50,000 young stellar objects.
• Provides fluxes for IRAC bands at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 microns.
• Data originates from the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope Legacy Project.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The archive includes sources with more uncertainty and fewer nulled wavelengths compared to the stricter catalog.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Observational data from the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC).

Time Range

Covers Epoch 1 and Epoch 2 observations.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 19:25:03.756363; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Spatial coverage is the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy.