A Catalog of Background Stars Reddened by Dust in the Taurus Dark Clouds

TL;DR

This study identifies and catalogs background stars reddened by dust in the Taurus Dark Clouds using multi-wavelength infrared data, providing valuable resources for interstellar medium research.

Contribution

It presents a new catalog of 248 background stars with measured extinctions and identifies a previously unrecognized young stellar object in the region.

Findings

Catalog of 248 reddened background stars with extinction estimates

Identification of a new candidate young stellar object IRAS 04262+2735

Effective discrimination between field stars and YSOs using infrared data

Abstract

Normal field stars located behind dense clouds are a valuable resource in interstellar astrophysics, as they provide continua in which to study phenomena such as gas-phase and solid-state absorption features, interstellar extinction and polarization. This paper reports the results of a search for highly reddened stars behind the Taurus Dark Cloud complex. We use the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) Point Source Catalog to survey a 50 sq deg area of the cloud to a limiting magnitude of K = 10.0. Photometry in the 1.2-2.2 micron passbands from 2MASS is combined with photometry at longer infrared wavelengths (3.6-12 micron) from the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite to provide effective discrimination between reddened field stars and young stellar objects (YSOs) embedded in the cloud. Our final catalog contains 248 confirmed or probable background field stars, together with estimates of their total visual extinctions, which span the range 2-29 mag. We also identify the 2MASS source J04292083+2742074 (IRAS 04262+2735) as a previously unrecognized candidate YSO, based on the presence of infrared emission greatly in excess of that predicted for a normal reddened photosphere at wavelengths >5 microns.