Collaborative Research: Toward a Uniform and Complete Spectroscopic Archive for the COSMOS Legacy Field

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is directed at understanding the evolution of galaxies and their environments over cosmic time. It occupies a 2 square degree field in the constellation Sextans that is ideal for peering deep into the universe. as it is not obscured by objects in our own galaxy. This team will compile all available spectroscopic data in the COSMOS field into a uniform database that will provide redshifts for over 168,000 galaxies. These data will significantly enhance the COSMOS archive, giving it enormous value as a tool for future studies. Students will be supported at the University of Texas and the Rochester Institute of Technology. The data will be made available through Zoouniverse for a Citizen Science program. This team will produce an online, interactive database containing all the available spectroscopy over the COSMOS field, including data from published surveys as well as previously un-published data available in public archives and data from telescope archives of multi-object spectrographs. It will contain the available reduced data and data products but when necessary, raw archival observations will be reduced. It will have high quality 2D and 1D spectra, measured redshifts, and a catalog of absorption/emission line fluxes, equivalent widths, and kinematic properties linked to existing multiwavelength imaging data and photometric databases. The database will be used to address important outstanding questions in the fields of cosmology and extragalactic astronomy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.