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Milky Way Project First Data Release IR Bubble Catalog

Metadata Updated: August 30, 2025

This table contains a new catalog of 5106 infrared bubbles created through visual classification via the online citizen science website 'The Milky Way Project' (MWP). Bubbles in the new catalog have been independently measured by at least five individuals, producing consensus parameters for their positions, radii, thicknesses, eccentricities and position angles. Citizen scientists - volunteers recruited online and taking part in this research - have independently rediscovered the locations of at least 86% of three widely used catalogs of bubbles and H II regions while finding an order of magnitude more objects. 29% of the bubbles in the Milky Way Project catalog lie on the rim of a larger bubble, or have smaller bubbles located within them, opening up the possibility of better statistical studies of triggered star formation. This online resource of the <a href="http://www.milkywayproject.org/">Milky Way Project</a> provides a crowd-sourced map of bubbles and arcs in the Milky Way, and will enable better statistical analysis of Galactic star formation sites. This table is the first data release of the MWP IR Bubble Catalog: the authors anticipate a future release of a second, refined catalog incorporating better data-reduction techniques. This table was created by the HEASARC in March 2013 based on the <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/J/MNRAS/424/2442">CDS Catalog J/MNRAS/424/2442</a> files mwplarge.dat and mwpsmall.dat. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .

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 August 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date August 30, 2025
Publisher High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Maintainer
Identifier ivo://nasa.heasarc/mwp1bubble
Data Last Modified 2025-08-27
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 01d49788-e507-405e-85d5-6ba4b416bee1
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/mwp1bubble.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash a70032709bccb107181a0e06c69c03ba7e943a182cb53b29db81204068c515b6
Source Schema Version 1.1

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