SAGE IRAC Catalog: Infrared Sources in the Large Magellanic Cloud

The Spitzer Space Telescope's SAGE project catalog reveals over 6 million infrared sources in the Large Magellanic Cloud, including approximately 150,000 evolved stars and 50,000 young stellar objects. This dataset, produced by NASA, contains separate source lists for Epoch 1 and Epoch 2 observations. It is designed to trace the life cycle of matter driving galactic evolution.

Use Cases

• Modeling stellar evolution and mass injection based on identified evolved stars.
• Analyzing star formation processes based on cataloged young stellar objects.
• Studying the structure of the interstellar medium based on diffuse emission column densities.
• Comparing source populations and photometry between two observational epochs.

Strengths

• Contains over 6 million identified sources, providing a large-scale view of the galaxy.
• Includes approximately 150,000 evolved stars and 50,000 young stellar objects, enabling population studies.
• Applies specific signal-to-noise thresholds (e.g., S/N > 6 for key bands in the catalog) for flux inclusion, indicating quality filtering.
• Sources are culled based on neighbor proximity (e.g., 2" radius for catalog), reducing source confusion.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The description notes the archive version has more sources but with greater uncertainty, suggesting a trade-off between completeness and reliability.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Observational data from the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) as part of the SAGE Legacy project.

Time Range

Covers two observational epochs (Epoch 1 and Epoch 2).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 18:58:54.143542; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Spatial coverage is the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.