A Catalog of Extended Green Objects (EGOs) in the GLIMPSE Survey: A new Sample of Massive Young Stellar Object Outflow Candidates

Abstract

Using images from the Spitzer Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE), we have identified more than 300 extended 4.5 μm sources (Extended Green Objects --EGOs--, for the common coding of the [4.5] band as green in three-color composite InfraRed Array Camera images). We present a catalog of these EGOs, including integrated flux density measurements at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0, and 24 microns from GLIMPSE and the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer Galactic Plane Survey. The average angular separation between a source in our sample and the nearest IRAS point source is greater than 1 arcmin. The majority of EGOs are associated with infrared dark clouds (IRDCs), and where high-resolution 6.7 GHz CH3 OH maser surveys overlap the GLIMPSE coverage, EGOs and 6.7 GHz CH3 OH masers are strongly correlated. Extended 4.5 microns emission is thought to trace shocked molecular gas in protostellar outflows; the association of EGOs with IRDCs and 6.7 GHz CH3 OH masers suggests that the extended 4.5 microns emission may pinpoint outflows specifically from massive protostars. The mid-IR colors of EGOs lie in regions of color-color space occupied by young protostars still embedded in infalling envelopes.