The Spitzer c2d Survey of Large, Nearby, Interstellar Clouds: VII. Ophiuchus Observed with MIPS

TL;DR

This study presents detailed MIPS observations of the Ophiuchus clouds, identifying thousands of sources including hundreds of young stellar objects, mainly concentrated in known clusters, enhancing understanding of star formation regions.

Contribution

First comprehensive MIPS survey of Ophiuchus clouds, detecting thousands of sources and identifying new YSO candidates with detailed infrared data.

Findings

Detected 5779 sources at 24 um and 81 at 70 um.

Identified 323 YSO candidates based on color-magnitude diagrams.

Most YSOs are located in known clusters and aggregates.

Abstract

We present maps of 14.4 deg^2 of the Ophiuchus dark clouds observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS). These high quality maps depict both numerous point sources as well as extended dust emission within the star-forming and non-star-forming portions of these clouds. Using PSF-fitting photometry, we detect 5779 sources at 24 um and 81 sources at 70 um at the 10 sigma level of significance. Three hundred twenty-three candidate young stellar objects (YSOs) were identified according to their positions on the MIPS/2MASS K versus K$-$[24] color-magnitude diagrams as compared to 24 um detections in the SWIRE extragalactic survey. We find that more than half of the YSO candidates, and almost all the ones with protostellar Class I spectral energy distributions, are confined to the known cluster and aggregates.