CANDELS: THE COSMIC ASSEMBLY NEAR-INFRARED DEEP EXTRAGALACTIC LEGACY SURVEY

Norman A. Grogin*, Dale D. Kocevski, S. M. Faber, Henry C. Ferguson, Anton M. Koekemoer, Adam G. Riess, Viviana Acquaviva, David M. Alexander, Omar Almaini, Matthew L. N. Ashby, Marco Barden, Eric F. Bell, Frederic Bournaud, Thomas M. Brown, Karina I. Caputi, Stefano Casertano, Paolo Cassata, Marco Castellano, Peter Challis, Ranga-Ram CharyEdmond Cheung, Michele Cirasuolo, Christopher J. Conselice, Asantha Roshan Cooray, Darren J. Croton, Emanuele Daddi, Tomas Dahlen, Romeel Dave, Duilia F. de Mello, Avishai Dekel, Mark Dickinson, Timothy Dolch, Jennifer L. Donley, James S. Dunlop, Aaron A. Dutton, David Elbaz, Giovanni G. Fazio, Alexei V. Filippenko, Steven L. Finkelstein, Adriano Fontana, Jonathan P. Gardner, Peter M. Garnavich, Eric Gawiser, Mauro Giavalisco, Andrea Grazian, Yicheng Guo, Nimish P. Hathi, Boris Haeussler, Philip F. Hopkins, Jia-Sheng Huang, Kuang-Han Huang, Saurabh W. Jha, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Robert P. Kirshner, David C. Koo, Kamson Lai, Kyoung-Soo Lee, Weidong Li, Jennifer M. Lotz, Ray A. Lucas, Piero Madau, Patrick J. McCarthy, Elizabeth J. McGrath, Daniel H. McIntosh, Ross J. McLure, Bahram Mobasher, Leonidas A. Moustakas, Mark Mozena, Kirpal Nandra, Jeffrey A. Newman, Sami-Matias Niemi, Kai G. Noeske, Casey J. Papovich, Laura Pentericci, Alexandra Pope, Joel R. Primack, Abhijith Rajan, Swara Ravindranath, Naveen A. Reddy, Alvio Renzini, Hans-Walter Rix, Aday R. Robaina, Steven A. Rodney, David J. Rosario, Piero Rosati, Sara Salimbeni, Claudia Scarlata, Brian Siana, Luc Simard, Joseph Smidt, Rachel S. Somerville, Hyron Spinrad, Amber N. Straughn, Louis-Gregory Strolger, Olivia Telford, Harry I. Teplitz, Jonathan R. Trump, Arjen van der Wel, Carolin Villforth, Risa H. Wechsler, Benjamin J. Weiner, Tommy Wiklind, Vivienne Wild, Grant Wilson, Stijn Wuyts, Hao-Jing Yan, Min S. Yun

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) is designed to document the first third of galactic evolution, over the approximate redshift (z) range 8-1.5. It will image >250,000 distant galaxies using three separate cameras on the Hubble Space Telescope, from the mid-ultraviolet to the near-infrared, and will find and measure Type Ia supernovae at z > 1.5 to test their accuracy as standardizable candles for cosmology. Five premier multi-wavelength sky regions are selected, each with extensive ancillary data. The use of five widely separated fields mitigates cosmic variance and yields statistically robust and complete samples of galaxies down to a stellar mass of 10(9)M(circle dot) to z approximate to 2, reaching the knee of the ultraviolet luminosity function of galaxies to z approximate to 8. The survey covers approximately 800 arcmin(2) and is divided into two parts. The CANDELS/Deep survey (5 sigma point-source limit H = 27.7 mag) covers similar to 125 arcmin(2) within Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS)-N and GOODS-S. The CANDELS/Wide survey includes GOODS and three additional fields (Extended Groth Strip, COSMOS, and Ultra-deep Survey) and covers the full area to a 5 sigma point-source limit of H greater than or similar to 27.0 mag. Together with the Hubble Ultra Deep Fields, the strategy creates a three-tiered "wedding-cake" approach that has proven efficient for extragalactic surveys. Data from the survey are nonproprietary and are useful for a wide variety of science investigations. In this paper, we describe the basic motivations for the survey, the CANDELS team science goals and the resulting observational requirements, the field selection and geometry, and the observing design. The Hubble data processing and products are described in a companion paper.

Original languageEnglish
Article number35
Number of pages39
JournalAstrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Volume197
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2011

Keywords

  • cosmology: observations
  • galaxies: high-redshift
  • HUBBLE-SPACE-TELESCOPE
  • STAR-FORMING GALAXIES
  • ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI
  • LYMAN-BREAK GALAXIES
  • SUPERMASSIVE BLACK-HOLES
  • EXTENDED GROTH-STRIP
  • GOODS-SOUTH FIELD
  • SIMILAR-TO 7
  • REST-FRAME ULTRAVIOLET
  • EARLY RELEASE SCIENCE

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