GEMS: Galaxy Evolution from Morphologies and SEDs

Abstract

GEMS, Galaxy Evolution from Morphologies and SEDs, is a large-area (800\narcmin2) two-color (F606W and F850LP) imaging survey with the Advanced Camera\nfor Surveys on HST. Centered on the Chandra Deep Field South, it covers an area\nof ~28'x28', or about 120 Hubble Deep Field areas, to a depth of\nm_AB(F606W)=28.3 (5sigma and m_AB(F850LP)=27.1 (5sigma) for compact sources. In\nits central ~1/4, GEMS incorporates ACS imaging from the GOODS project.\nFocusing on the redshift range 0.2<=z<=1.1, GEMS provides morphologies and\nstructural parameters for nearly 10,000 galaxies where redshift estimates,\nluminosities and SEDs exist from COMBO-17. At the same time, GEMS contains\ndetectable host galaxy images for several hundred faint AGN. This paper\nprovides an overview of the science goals, the experiment design, the data\nreduction and the science analysis plan for GEMS.\n