New Young Star Candidates in the Taurus-Auriga Region as Selected From WISE

TL;DR

This study utilizes WISE infrared data to identify new young star candidates in the Taurus-Auriga region, expanding the known member list and providing candidate objects for further study.

Contribution

It presents a novel infrared color-based method to identify potential Taurus young stellar objects over a large sky area using WISE data.

Findings

Rediscovered known Taurus YSOs with infrared excesses

Identified 94 new candidate YSO-like members

Compiled lists of rejected candidates and confirmed members

Abstract

The Taurus Molecular Cloud subtends a large solid angle on the sky, in excess of 250 square degrees. The search for legitimate Taurus members to date has been limited by sky coverage as well as the challenge of distinguishing members from field interlopers. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has recently observed the entire sky, and we take advantage of the opportunity to search for young stellar object (YSO) candidate Taurus members from a ~260 square degree region designed to encompass previously-identified Taurus members. We use near- and mid-infrared colors to select objects with apparent infrared excesses and incorporate other catalogs of ancillary data to present: a list of rediscovered Taurus YSOs with infrared excesses (taken to be due to circumstellar disks), a list of rejected YSO candidates (largely galaxies), and a list of 94 surviving candidate new YSO-like Taurus members. There is likely to be contamination lingering in this candidate list, and follow-up spectra are warranted.