SAGE MIPS 160 Micron Catalog: Spitzer Telescope Survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud

The Spitzer Space Telescope Survey of the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution (SAGE) traces the life cycle of observable matter in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It includes over 6 million sources, such as approximately 150,000 evolved stars and 50,000 young stellar objects, meeting specific signal-to-noise and correlation criteria. The catalog was produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling the life cycle of observable matter in a galaxy based on the survey's stated purpose
• Identifying and classifying evolved stars based on the catalog's inclusion of ~150,000 such sources
• Studying young stellar object populations based on the ~50,000 YSOs in the catalog
• Analyzing the diffuse interstellar medium based on column density thresholds mentioned in the description
• Assessing source reliability and completeness for cross-matching with other astronomical surveys based on the documented selection criteria

Strengths

• Contains over 6 million sources, providing a large-scale view of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Includes approximately 150,000 evolved stars and 50,000 young stellar objects, enabling population studies
• Sources meet defined quality criteria, including a signal-to-noise >5 and point-like correlation thresholds
• Estimated to have less than 1% of remaining unreliable sources in the final catalogs

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 a small number of sources with unusual uncertainties were removed, and final catalogs may still contain a few unreliable sources

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data from the Spitzer Space Telescope's SAGE Legacy Project, with sources extracted from mosaics meeting specific correlation and signal-to-noise criteria.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 16:31:19.327182; freshness should be verified

Geography

Large Magellanic Cloud