2008/01/24 by David Carter, Paul Goudfrooij, Bahram Mobasher +49 · 3 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #CCD and CMOS Imaging Sensors #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/533439
published as 2008ApJS..176..424C · 47 pages, 3 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal supplement
arxiv created 2008/01/24 · openalex publication_date 2008/05/28 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We describe the HST ACS Coma cluster Treasury survey, a deep two-passband imaging survey of one of the nearest rich clusters of galaxies, the Coma cluster (Abell 1656). The survey was designed to cover an area of 740 square arcmin in regions of different density of both galaxies and intergalactic medium within the cluster. The ACS failure of January 27th 2007 leaves the survey 28% complete, with 21 ACS pointings (230 square arcmin) complete, and partial data for a further 4 pointings (44 square arcmin). Predicted survey depth for 10 sigma detections for optimal photometry of point sources is g' = 27.6 in the F475W filter, and IC=26.8 mag in F814 (AB magnitudes). Initial simulations with artificially injected point sources show 90% recovered at magnitude limits of g' = 27.55 and IC = 26.65. For extended sources, the predicted 10 sigma limits for a 1 square arcsecond region are g' = 25.8 mag/sq. arcsec and IC = 25.0 mag/sq. arcsec. We highlight several motivating science goals of the survey, including study of the faint end of the cluster galaxy luminosity function, structural parameters of dwarf galaxies, stellar populations and their effect on colors and color gradients, evolution of morphological components in a dense environment, the nature of ultra compact dwarf galaxies, and globular cluster populations of cluster galaxies of a range of luminosities and types. This survey will also provide a local rich cluster benchmark for various well known global scaling relations and explore new relations pertaining to the nuclear properties of galaxies.