SAGE IRAC: Spitzer Telescope Photometry Catalog of the Large Magellanic Cloud

A Spitzer Space Telescope photometry catalog from the SAGE Legacy Project surveying the Large Magellanic Cloud. The project has revealed over 6 million sources, including approximately 150,000 evolved stars and 50,000 young stellar objects. The data was produced by NASA to study the life cycle of matter driving galaxy evolution.

Use Cases

• Identify and classify evolved stars based on infrared photometry.
• Study young stellar object populations and star formation processes.
• Analyze the diffuse interstellar medium using column density thresholds.
• Model galaxy-wide relationships between stellar mass injection and new star formation.

Strengths

• Contains over 6 million sources, providing a large sample for statistical analysis.
• Includes specific source counts: ~150,000 evolved stars and ~50,000 young stellar objects.
• Applies strict signal-to-noise criteria (S/N > [6,6,6,10] for catalog) for flux reliability.
• Excludes sources with neighbors within a 2" radius in the catalog to reduce 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.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Collection Method

Observational data from the Spitzer Space Telescope's SAGE Legacy Project.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 18:00:52.407596; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Large Magellanic Cloud