Glimpse360: Observing The Outback Of The Galaxy

GLIMPSE360 is a Spitzer Space Telescope Exploration Science Project that is mapping the remaining 187 degrees of the Galactic Plane not previously observed with Spitzer. The survey covers longitude l=65-265 degrees (excluding l =102-109 and l=76-82). The latitude range is 2.6 degrees, slightly wider than the previous GLIMPSE surveys (2 degrees). The latitude center follows the

Galactic warp. Three visits on each sky position with 0.6 & 12s HDR frames makes this survey 13 times more sensitive than the previous GLIMPSE surveys of the inner Galactic plane. Even though we only have 2 IRAC bands in the post-cryogenic mission (3.6 and 4.5 microns) compared to GLIMPSE (3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0, and 24 micron from the MIPSGAL), the combination of deeper exposures and lower confusion is allowing us to achieve all the science goals we had hoped for, including: mapping the edge of the stellar disk, and finding PAH bubbles from massive stars, outflows from intermediate to high-mass Young Stellar Objects (YSOs), low-to high-mass YSOs, stellar clusters, supernova remnants, infrared dark clouds (from extinction fitting of stars rather than silhouettes of PAH backgrounds), dusty evolved stars, and external galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance.

As of Oct. 1, 2010, about 80% of the data have been taken, and of that, about 70% have been processed at least once to produce source lists. We will present preliminary results and some wickedly pretty (green) pictures. Following the tradition of the previous GLIMPSE Legacy programs, we will deliver enhanced products to the community, consisting of high-quality point source lists and cleaned mosaic images. This research is supported by NASA/JPL.