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Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey Distance Catalog

Metadata Updated: February 6, 2026

The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) is a 1.1 mm continuum survey of the Galactic Plane made using Bolocam on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. Millimeter-wavelength thermal dust emission reveals the repositories of the densest molecular gas, ranging in scale from cores to whole clouds. By pinpointing these regions, the connection of this gas to nascent and ongoing star formation may be explored. The BGPS coverage totals 170 square degrees (with 33" FWHM effective resolution). The survey is contiguous over the range -10.5 ≤ l ≤ 90.5, |b| ≤ 0.5. Towards the Cygnus X spiral arm, the coverage was flared to |b| ≤ 1.5 for 75.5 ≤ l ≤ 87.5. In addition, cross-cuts to |b| ≤ 1.5 were made at l = 3, 15, 30 and 31. The total area of this section is 133 square degrees. With the exception of the increase in latitude, no pre-selection criteria were applied to the coverage in this region. In addition to the contiguous region, four targeted regions in the outer Galaxy were observed: IC1396 (9 square degrees, 97.5 ≤ l ≤ 100.5, 2.25 ≤ l ≤ 5.25), a region towards the Perseus Arm (4 square degrees centered on l = 111, b=0 near NGC7538), W3/4/5 (18 square degrees, 132.5 ≤ l ≤ 138.5) and Gem OB1 (6 square degrees, 187.5 ≤ l ≤ 193.5). The survey has detected approximately 8,400 sources, to an rms noise level in the maps ranging from 30 to 60 mJy beam-1. The BGPS survey and catalog provide an important database for sub/millimeter observations with the Herschel Space Observatory, ALMA, SCUBA-2, APEX, and others.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 6, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date February 6, 2026
Publisher NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive
Maintainer
Identifier ivo://irsa.ipac/bolocam_gps/catalog/bgps_distance
Data Last Modified 2026-02-03
Category Astrophysics
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 026:00
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 0d5d2f56-c78e-46ef-a43c-ee3e503e06a5
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/BOLOCAM_GPS/gator_docs/bolocamdist_colDescriptions.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 8d1aae690c0f277607eca15e564149f6c353cbffacd8f0d0f75c120bf20cd10b
Source Schema Version 1.1

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