WISE census of YSOs in Canis Major

Applying stringent magnitude cuts to exclude the majority of extragalactic contaminants, we find 144 Class I candidates and 335 Class II candidates. The sensitivity to Class II candidates is limited by their faintness at the distance to Canis Major (assumed as 1000pc).

More than half the candidates (53%) are found in 16 groups of more than four members, including four groups with more than 25 members each. The ratio of Class II to Class I objects, N_II_/N_I_, varies from 0.4 to 8.3 in just the largest four groups. We compare our results to those obtainable with combined Two Micron All Sky Survey and post-cryogenic Spitzer Space Telescope data; the latter approach recovers missing Class II sources.