ABSTRACT. A brief description is given of the GLIMPSE surveys, including the areas surveyed, sensitivity limits, and products. The primary motivations for this review are to describe some of the main scientific results enabled by the GLIMPSE surveys and to note potential future applications of the GLIMPSE catalogs and images. In particular, we discuss contributions to our understanding of star formation and early evolution, the interstellar medium, galactic structure, and evolved stars. Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs), young stellar objects (YSOs), and infrared bubbles/H II regions are discussed in some detail. A probable triggered star formation associated with expanding infrared bubbles is briefly mentioned. The distribution and morphologies of dust and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the interstellar medium are discussed. Examples are shown from GLIMPSE images of bow shocks, pillars (elephant trunks), and instabilities in massive star-formation regions. The infrared extinction law of diffuse interstellar dust is discussed. The large-scale structure of the Galaxy has been traced by red-clump giants using the GLIMPSE point-source catalog to reveal the radius and orientation of the central bar, the stellar radial scale length, an obvious increase in star counts toward the tangency to the Scutum-Centaurus spiral arm, the lack of an obvious tangency from star counts toward the Sagittarius spiral arm, and a sharp increase in star counts toward the nuclear bulge. Recent results on evolved stars and some serendipitous discoveries are mentioned. More than 70 refereed papers have been published based on GLIMPSE data as of 2008 November.

A visual examination of the images from the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) has revealed 322 partial and closed rings that we propose represent partially or fully enclosed three-dimensional bubbles. We argue that the bubbles are primarily formed by hot young stars in massive star formation regions. We have found an average of about 1.5 bubbles per square degree. About 25% of the bubbles coincide with known radio H ii regions, and about 13% enclose known star clusters. It appears that B4-B9 stars (too cool to produce detectable radio H ii regions) probably produce about three-quarters of the bubbles in our sample, and the remainder are produced by young O-B3 stars that produce detectable radio H ii regions. Some of the bubbles may be the outer edges of H ii regions where PAH spectral features are excited and may not be dynamically formed by stellar winds. Only three of the bubbles are identified as known SNRs. No bubbles coincide with known planetary nebulae or W-R stars in the GLIMPSE survey area. The bubbles are small. The distribution of angular diameters peaks between 1 0 and 3 0 with over 98% having angular diameters less than 10 0 and 88% less than 4 0. Almost 90% have shell thicknesses between 0.2 and 0.4 of their outer radii. Bubble shell thickness increases approximately linearly with shell radius. The eccentricities are rather large, peaking between 0.6 and 0.7; about 65% have eccentricities between 0.55 and 0.85.

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 μm 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 . The majority of EGOs are associated with infrared dark clouds (IRDCs), and where high-resolution 6.7 GHz CH 3 OH maser surveys overlap the GLIMPSE coverage, EGOs and 6.7 GHz CH 3 OH masers are strongly correlated. Extended 4.5 μm emission is thought to trace shocked molecular gas in protostellar outflows; the association of EGOs with IRDCs and 6.7 GHz CH 3 OH masers suggests that the extended 4.5 μm 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.

We present a highly reliable flux-limited census of 18,949 point sources in the Galactic midplane that have intrinsically red mid-infrared colors. These sources were selected from the Spitzer Space Telescope Galactic Legacy Infrared Midplane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) I and II surveys of 274 deg 2 of the Galactic midplane, and consist mostly of high-and intermediate-mass young stellar objects (YSOs) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. The selection criteria were carefully chosen to minimize the effects of positiondependent sensitivity, saturation, and confusion. The distribution of sources on the sky and their location in the Infrared Array Camera and the Multiband Image Photometer for Spitzer 24 μm color-magnitude and colorcolor space are presented. Using this large sample, we find that YSOs and AGB stars can be mostly separated by simple color-magnitude selection criteria into approximately 50%-70% of YSOs and 30%-50% of AGB stars. Planetary nebulae and background galaxies together represent at most 2%-3% of all the red sources. 1004 red sources in the GLIMPSE II region, mostly AGB stars with high mass-loss rates, show significant (0.3 mag) variability at 4.5 and/or 8.0 μm. With over 11,000 likely YSOs and over 7000 likely AGB stars, this is to date the largest uniform census of AGB stars and high-and intermediate-mass YSOs in the Milky Way Galaxy.

The star formation rate (SFR) of the Milky Way remains poorly known, with often-quoted values ranging from 1 to 10 M yr −1 . This situation persists despite the potential for the Milky Way to serve as the ultimate SFR calibrator for external galaxies. We show that various estimates for the Galactic SFR are consistent with one another once they have been normalized to the same initial mass function (IMF) and massive star models, converging to 1.9 ± 0.4 M yr −1 . However, standard SFR diagnostics are vulnerable to systematics founded in the use of indirect observational tracers sensitive only to high-mass stars. We find that absolute SFRs measured using resolved low/intermediate-mass stellar populations in Galactic H ii regions are systematically higher by factors of ∼2-3 compared with calibrations for SFRs measured from mid-IR and radio emission. We discuss some potential explanations for this discrepancy and conclude that it could be allayed if (1) the power-law slope of the IMF for intermediate-mass (1.5 M < m < 5M ) stars were steeper than the Salpeter slope or (2) a correction factor was applied to the extragalactic 24 μm SFR calibrations to account for the duration of star formation in individual mid-IR-bright H ii regions relative to the lifetimes of O stars. Finally, we present some approaches for testing whether a Galactic SFR of ∼2 M yr −1 is consistent with what we would measure if we could view the Milky Way as external observers. Using luminous radio supernova remnants and X-ray point sources, we find that the Milky Way deviates from expectations at the 1σ -3σ level, hinting that perhaps the Galactic SFR is overestimated or extragalactic SFRs need to be revised upward.

The clusters of young stars in massive star-forming regions show a wide range of sizes, morphologies, and numbers of stars. Their highly subclustered structures are revealed by the MYStIX project's sample of 31,754 young stars in nearby sites of star formation (regions at distances <3.6 kpc that contain at least one O-type star.) In 17 of the regions surveyed by MYStIX, we identify subclusters of young stars using finite mixture models -collections of isothermal ellipsoids that model individual subclusters. Maximum likelihood estimation is used to estimate the model parameters, and the Akaike Information Criterion is used to determine the number of subclusters. This procedure often successfully finds famous subclusters, such as the BN/KL complex behind the Orion Nebula Cluster and the KW-object complex in M 17. A catalog of 142 subclusters is presented, with 1 to 20 subclusters per region. The subcluster core radius distribution for this sample is peaked at 0.17 pc with a standard deviation of 0.43 dex, and subcluster core radius is negatively correlated with gas/dust absorption of the stars -a possible age effect. Based on the morphological arrangements of subclusters, we identify four classes of spatial structure: long chains of subclusters, clumpy structures, isolated clusters with a core-halo structure, and isolated clusters well fit by a single isothermal ellipsoid.Subject headings: methods: statistical; open clusters and associations: general; stars: formation; stars: pre-main sequence; H ii regions; ISM: structure 7 These libraries can be installed from the R session by install.packages ("spatstat",dependencies=T)

We report 269 mid-infrared bubbles within 10 of the Galactic center from visual inspection of the Spitzer GLIMPSE II Legacy Science program images. The surface density of bubbles is $5 deg À2 or about 3 times that detected in longitudes jlj ¼ 10 Y65 , because the inner 10 of longitude were more thoroughly searched for small bubbles. There is a gradient in the number of bubbles with longitude with an increase of about a factor of 2 from 2 to 10 ; this is probably the result of several factors, including decreasing diffuse background brightness, confusion, and opacity with longitude. Bubble eccentricities are typically between 0.6 and 0.8, and >50% show evidence for blowouts, which we suggest result from local density fluctuations of the ISM and/or anisotropic stellar winds and radiation fields. The fraction of bubbles identified with H ii regions and clusters is only about half that found at jlj > 10 . This is largely a result of the much smaller angular diameter of bubbles cataloged in the inner Galaxy than in the outer Galaxy. At least 12% of the bubbles have morphologies suggestive of triggered star formation. Most of the bubbles that show evidence for triggered star formation in the inner Galaxy have not formed secondary bubbles; it is postulated that this may be because they are too young to have had time for this to occur.

We present an analysis of wind-blown, parsec-sized, mid-infrared bubbles and associated star formation using the GLIMPSE IRAC, MIPSGAL MIPS, and MAGPIS VLA surveys. Three bubbles from the Churchwell et al. catalog were selected. The relative distribution of the ionized gas (based on 20 cm emission), PAH emission (based on 8 m, 5.8 m, and lack of 4.5 m emission), and hot dust (24 m emission) is compared. At the center of each bubble there is a region containing ionized gas and hot dust surrounded by PAHs. We identify the likely source(s) of the stellar wind and ionizing flux producing each bubble based on SED fitting to numerical hot stellar photosphere models. Candidate YSOs are also identified using SED fitting, including several sites of possible triggered star formation.