A Search for Faint Sources of Infrared Excess in the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products Catalog
Abstract
This research focuses on faint sources (magnitude ≥ 8 at 24 μm) in the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products (SEIP) Catalog. The SEIP is a unique repository of high resolution infrared data for 42 million point sources acquired during the Spitzer Space Telescope's 5-year cryogenic mission. Due to the large field of view of Spitzer's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and the Multiband Imager and Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) camera, many of these objects were imaged serendipitously in the field of view of the intended targets and have never been analyzed. These sources should reveal new objects which show infrared excess not detected by other infrared surveys. The presence of an infrared excess can be used to find a wide range of phenomena, such as young stellar objects, planet-forming regions around main sequence stars, and active galactic nuclei. Filtering of the SEIP database at SNR > 5 in the 3.6, 4.5, and 24 micron channels yielded 459,748 sources. That was then filtered further by comparison with the GAIA DR 2 catalog yielding 3086 targets in common, of which 181 targets had SNR > 3 parallax data and 53 sources that passed a visual inspection of the Spitzer images. This research was made possible through the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP) and was funded by NASA Astrophysics Data Program.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #233
- Pub Date:
- January 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AAS...23316202G