COSMOS: Hubble Space Telescope Observations*

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© 2007. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
, , Citation N. Scoville et al 2007 ApJS 172 38 DOI 10.1086/516580

0067-0049/172/1/38

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.

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Footnotes

  • Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.

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10.1086/516580