COSMOS: Hubble Space Telescope Observations
/ Authors
N. Scoville, N. Scoville, R. Abraham, H. Aussel, J. Barnes, A. Benson, A. Blain, D. Calzetti, A. Comastri, P. Capak
and 48 more authors
C. Carilli, J. Carlstrom, C. Carollo, J. Colbert, E. Daddi, R. Ellis, M. Elvis, S. Ewald, M. Fall, A. Franceschini, M. Giavalisco, W. Green, R. Griffiths, L. Guzzo, G. Hasinger, C. Impey, J. Kneib, J. Koda, A. Koekemoer, O. LeFèvre, S. Lilly, C. T. Liu, H. McCracken, R. Massey, Y. Mellier, S. Miyazaki, B. Mobasher, J. Mould, C. Norman, A. Réfrégier, A. Renzini, A. Renzini, J. Rhodes, J. Rhodes, M. Rich, D. Sanders, D. Schiminovich, E. Schinnerer, M. Scodeggio, K. Sheth, P. Shopbell, Y. Taniguchi, N. Tyson, C. M. Urry, L. V. Waerbeke, P. Vettolani, S. White, Lin Yan
/ Abstract
The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) was initiated with an extensive allocation (590 orbits in Cycles 12-13) using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for high-resolution imaging. Here we review the characteristics of the HST imaging with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and parallel observations with NICMOS and WFPC2. A square field (1.8 deg2) has been imaged with single-orbit ACS I-band F814W exposures with 50% completeness for sources 0.5'' in diameter at IAB = 26.0 mag. The ACS is a key part of the COSMOS survey, providing very high sensitivity and high-resolution (0.09'' FWHM and 0.05'' pixels) imaging and detecting a million objects. These images yield resolved morphologies for several hundred thousand galaxies. The small HST PSF also provides greatly enhanced sensitivity for weak-lensing investigations of the dark matter distribution.
Journal: The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
DOI: 10.1086/516580