Number Counts At 3 < lambda < 10 um From the Spitzer Space Telescope
Abstract
Infrared source counts at wavelengths 3 < lambda < 10 um cover more than 10 magnitudes in source brightness, four orders of magnitude in surface density, and reach an integrated surface density of 10^5 sources/deg^2. At m<14 mag, most of the sources are Galactic stars, in agreement with models. After removal of Galactic stars, galaxy counts are consistent with what few measurements exist at nearby wavelengths. At 3.6 and 4.5 um, the galaxy counts follow the expectations of a Euclidean world model down to ~16 mag and drop below the Euclidean curve for fainter magnitudes. Counts at these wavelengths begin to show decreasing completeness around magnitude 19.5. At 5.8 and 8 um, the counts relative to a Euclidean world model show a large excess at bright magnitudes. This is probably because local galaxies emit strongly in the aromatic dust (``PAH'') features. The counts at 3.6 um resolve <50% of the Cosmic Infrared Background at that wavelength.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0405595,
title = {Number Counts At 3 < lambda < 10 um From the Spitzer Space Telescope},
author = {G. G. Fazio and M. L. N. Ashby and P. Barmby and J. L. Hora and J. -S. Huang and M. A. Pahre and Z. Wang and S. P. Willner and R. G. Arendt and S. H. Moseley and M. Brodwin and P. Eisenhardt and D. Stern and E. V. Tollestrup and E. L. Wright},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0405595},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
ApJS (in press), in the Spitzer Space Telescope special issue; 14 pages, 2 color figures, 1 table (electronic only)