COSMOS : Hubble Space Telescope Observations

• Main Authors: Scoville, N, Benson, A, Blain, A. W, Calzetti, D, Comastri, A, Capak, P, Carilli, C, Carlstrom, J. E, Carollo, C. M, Colbert, J, Daddi, E, Ellis, R. S, Elvis, M, Ewald, S. P, Fall, M, Franceschini, A, Giavalisco, M, Green, W, Griffiths, R. E, Guzzo, L, Hasinger, G, Impey, C, Kneib, J-P, Koda, J, Koekemoer, A, Lefevre, O, Lilly, S, Liu, C. T, McCracken, H. J, Massey, R, Mellier, Y, Miyazaki, S, Mobasher, B, Mould, J, Norman, C, Refregier, A, Renzini, A, Rhodes, J, Rich, M, Sanders, D. B, Schiminovich, D, Schinnerer, E, Scodeggio, M, Sheth, K, Shopbell, P. L, Taniguchi, Y, Tyson, N, Urry, C. M, Van Waerbeke, L, Vettolani, P, White, S. D. M, Yan, L, Zamorani, G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 12.12.2006
• Subjects: Physics - Astrophysics of Galaxies; Physics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics; Physics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Physics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena; Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Physics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0612306

Astrophys.J.Suppl.172:38-45,2007 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$\sq$\deg) has been imaged with single-orbit ACS I-F814W exposures with 50% completeness for sources 0.5\arcsec in diameter at I$_{AB} $ = 26.0 mag. The ACS imaging is a key part of the COSMOS survey, providing very high sensitivity and high resolution (0.09\arcsec FWHM, 0.05\arcsec pixels) imaging and detecting 1.2 million objects to a limiting magnitude of 26.5 (AB). 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.