STAGES: the Space Telescope A901/2 Galaxy Evolution Survey
Abstract
We present an overview of the Space Telescope A901/2 Galaxy Evolution Survey (STAGES). STAGES is a multiwavelength project designed to probe physical drivers of galaxy evolution across a wide range of environments and luminosity. A complex multi-cluster system at z~0.165 has been the subject of an 80-orbit F606W HST/ACS mosaic covering the full 0.5x0.5 (~5x5 Mpc^2) span of the supercluster. Extensive multiwavelength observations with XMM-Newton, GALEX, Spitzer, 2dF, GMRT, and the 17-band COMBO-17 photometric redshift survey complement the HST imaging. Our survey goals include simultaneously linking galaxy morphology with other observables such as age, star-formation rate, nuclear activity, and stellar mass. In addition, with the multiwavelength dataset and new high resolution mass maps from gravitational lensing, we are able to disentangle the large-scale structure of the system. By examining all aspects of environment we will be able to evaluate the relative importance of the dark matter halos, the local galaxy density, and the hot X-ray gas in driving galaxy transformation. This paper describes the HST imaging, data reduction, and creation of a master catalogue. We perform Sersic fitting on the HST images and conduct associated simulations to quantify completeness. In addition, we present the COMBO-17 photometric redshift catalogue and estimates of stellar masses and star-formation rates for this field. We define galaxy and cluster sample selection criteria which will be the basis for forthcoming science analyses, and present a compilation of notable objects in the field. Finally, we describe the further multiwavelength observations and announce public access to the data and catalogues.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0811.3890,
title = {STAGES: the Space Telescope A901/2 Galaxy Evolution Survey},
author = {M. E. Gray and Christian Wolf and Marco Barden and Chien Y. Peng and Boris Haeussler and Eric F. Bell and Daniel H. McIntosh and Yicheng Guo and John A. R. Caldwell and David Bacon and Michael Balogh and Fabio D. Barazza and Asmus Boehm and Catherine Heymans and Knud Jahnke and Shardha Jogee and Eelco van Kampen and Kyle Lane and Klaus Meisenheimer and Sebastian F. Sánchez and Andy Taylor and Lutz Wisotzki and Xianzhong Zheng and David A. Green and R. J. Beswick and D. J. Saikia and Rachel Gilmour and Benjamin D. Johnson and Casey Papovich},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0811.3890},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
29 pages, 22 figures; accepted to MNRAS. Full data release available at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/astronomy/stages