Spitzer survey of young stellar clusters

We have confidently identified and classified 2548 young stellar objects (YSOs) using recently established mid-infrared color-based methods. We have devised and applied a new algorithm for the isolation of local surface density enhancements from point source distributions, enabling us to extract the overdense cores of the observed star-forming regions for further analysis.

We have compiled several basic structural measurements of these cluster cores from the data, such as mean surface densities of sources, cluster core radii, and aspect ratios, in order to characterize the ranges for these quantities. We find that a typical cluster core is 0.39pc in radius, has 26 members with infrared excess in a ratio of Class II to Class I sources of 3.7, is embedded in a A_Ks_=0.8mag cloud clump, and has a surface density of 60pc^-2^.