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Description
This paper presents the observations of Cloud D in the Vela Molecular Ridge, obtained with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) camera on board the Spitzer Space Telescope at the wavelengths {lambda}=3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0um. A photometric catalog of point sources, covering a field of approximately 1.2deg^2^, has been extracted and complemented with additional available observational data in the millimeter region. Previous observations of the same region, obtained with the Spitzer MIPS camera in the photometric bands at 24um and 70um, have also been reconsidered to allow an estimate of the spectral slope of the sources in a wider spectral range. A total of 170299 point sources, detected at the 5{sigma} sensitivity level in at least one of the IRAC bands, have been reported in the catalog. There were 8796 sources for which good quality photometry was obtained in all four IRAC bands. For this sample, a preliminary characterization of the young stellar population based on the determination of spectral slope is discussed; combining this with diagnostics in the color-magnitude and color-color diagrams, the relative population of young stellar objects (YSOs) in different evolutionary classes has been estimated and a total of 637 candidate YSOs have been selected.
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