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RCW 38 Young Stellar Objects Catalog

Metadata Updated: September 19, 2025

This table contains some of the results from a study of the structure of the high-mass star-forming region RCW 38 and the spatial distribution of its young stellar population. Spitzer Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) photometry (3-8 micron) is combined with Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) near-IR data to identify young stellar objects (YSOs) by IR-excess emission from their circumstellar material. Chandra X-ray data are used to identify class III pre-main-sequence stars lacking circumstellar material. The authors identify 624 YSOs: 23 class 0/I and 90 flat spectrum (FS) protostars, 437 class II stars, and 74 class III stars. They also identify 29 (27 new) O star candidates over the IRAC field. Seventy-two stars exhibit IR-variability, including 7 class 0/I and 12 flat spectrum YSOs. A further 177 tentative candidates are identified by their location in the IRAC [3.6] versus [3.6]-[5.8] color-magnitude diagram. The authors find strong evidence of subclustering in the region. Three subclusters were identified surrounding the central cluster, with massive and variable stars in each subcluster. The central region shows evidence of distinct spatial distributions of the protostars and pre-main-sequence stars. A previously detected IR cluster, DB2001_Obj36, has been established as a subcluster of RCW 38. This suggests that star formation in RCW 38 occurs over a more extended area than previously thought. The gas-to-dust ratio is examined using the X-ray derived hydrogen column density, NH and the K-band extinction, and found to be consistent with the diffuse interstellar medium, in contrast with Serpens and NGC 1333. The authors posit that the high photoionizing flux of massive stars in RCW 38 affects the agglomeration of the dust grains. This table contains the list of 624 young stellar objects (given in Tables 3 and 4 of the reference paper) found among the Spitzer sources in the field of RCW 38 using the two selection techniques described in Section 3 of the reference paper: (1) selection of stars with IR excesses in IR color-color diagrams, and (2) identification of X-ray luminous YSOs by comparing X-ray sources with IR detections. The latter technique was used to identify Type III YSOs lacking emission from a dusty disk. This table does NOT contain (i) the 177 candidate YSOs listed in Table 5 of the reference paper which were identified using the [3.6] versus [3.6] - [5.8] color-magnitude diagram, since contamination removal methods could not be utilized for these objects, (ii) the 24 candidate variable YSOs listed in Table 6 of the reference paper, nor (iii) 21 of the 29 candidate O-star cluster members which were listed in table 7 of the reference paper. This table was created by the HEASARC in January 2012 based on an electronic version of Tables 3 and 4 from the reference paper which were obtained from the ApJ 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 September 19, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from NASA Data.json

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date April 11, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 19, 2025
Publisher High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Maintainer
Identifier ivo://nasa.heasarc/rcw38yso
Data Last Modified 2025-09-10
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 5a49968f-ba55-4d2d-a740-19a23e68315d
Harvest Source Id 58f92550-7a01-4f00-b1b2-8dc953bd598f
Harvest Source Title NASA Data.json
Homepage URL https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/all/rcw38yso.html
Program Code 026:000
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b26a540c84d94097e3310fba901faef220e77a42dc4b45c314f93def209a2bbe
Source Schema Version 1.1

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