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NGC 6334 Chandra X-Ray Point Source Catalog

Metadata Updated: January 16, 2026

The full stellar population of NGC 6334, one of the most spectacular regions of massive star formation in the nearby Galaxy, has not been well sampled in past studies. The authors have analyzed a mosaic of two Chandra X-ray Observatory images of the region using sensitive data analysis methods, giving a list of 1607 faint X-ray sources with arcsecond positions and approximate line-of-sight absorption. About 95% of these are expected to be cluster members, most lower mass pre-main-sequence stars. Extrapolating to low X-ray levels, the total stellar population is estimated to be 20,000 - 30,000 pre-main-sequence stars. The X-ray sources show a complicated spatial pattern with ~10 distinct star clusters. The heavily obscured clusters are mostly associated with previously known far-infrared sources and radio H II regions. The lightly obscured clusters are mostly newly identified in the X-ray images. Dozens of likely OB stars are found, both in clusters and dispersed throughout the region, suggesting that star formation in the complex has proceeded over millions of years. A number of extraordinarily heavily absorbed X-ray sources are associated with the active regions of star formation. This table was created by the HEASARC in August 2009 based on the electronic version of table 1 from the above reference which were obtained from the AJ web site. 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.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date January 16, 2026

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date January 16, 2026
Publisher High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Maintainer
Identifier ivo://nasa.heasarc/ngc6334cxo
Data Last Modified 2026-01-13
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 8ab2162c-87c0-45db-838e-68661185ca65
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/ngc6334cxo.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 0a99294e2013aa552d64dafc8afd6c5b5602fad24706f97600a88024a8e15085
Source Schema Version 1.1

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