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Session 20 - Molecular Clouds, Dense Cores, and Protostars.
Display session, Monday, January 15
North Banquet Hall, Convention Center
We have initiated a process aimed at identifying and cataloging protostars contained within the IRAS data base. Such a catalog will be an important starting point for further spectroscopic and deep imaging studies, especially for space-based infrared instruments (ISO, SIRTF). The elements of our cataloging process are derived from our success in identifying similar protostars in small Bok globules and include: intial selection of candidates based on mid-infrared colors; detection of local dust heating in far-infrared bands, using IRAS coadds and HIRES images; and anticoincidence with known planetary nebulae and galaxies, performed via examination of the Palomar Sky Survey prints and ESO digital sky survey images. Follow-up millimeter wavelength spectral line mapping in CO and CS will be used to ascertain the radial velocities and distances to the bona fide protostars. Possessing distances will enable estimating the luminosities and galactic locations of the protostars. Previously studied protostars will have relevant catalog cross-references called out.
Our initial selection, based on 12/25 \mum IRAS colors, contains over 4,800 objects. We expect a large number of these will turn out to be planetary nebulae and other galaxies. Hence in addition to producing our catalog of protostars, we will generate a ``reject'' list of non-protostars contained within our initial candidate sample.
In this poster, we present the processing procedures, example images, and catalog summaries for the 86 reddest candidate sources. This sub-sample is expected to contain the youngest protostars detectable using our methodology.
