THE SIMPLE SURVEY: OBSERVATIONS, REDUCTION, AND CATALOG Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We present the Spitzer IRAC/MUSYCPublic Legacy Survey in the Extended CDF-South (SIMPLE),which consists of deep IRAC observations covering the 1600 arcmin2 area surrounding GOODS-S. The limiting magnitudes of the SIMPLE IRAC mosaics typically are 23.8, 23.6, 21.9, and 21.7, at 3.6 m, 4.5 m, 5.8 m, and 8.0 m, respectively (5s total point source magnitudes in AB). The SIMPLE IRAC images are combined with the 10' 15' GOODS IRAC mosaics in the center. We give detailed descriptions of the observations, data reduction, and properties of the final images, as well as the detection and photometry methods used to build a catalog. Using published optical and near-infrared data from the Multiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC), we construct an IRAC-selected catalog, containing photometry in UBVRIz'JHK, [3.6 m], [4.5 m], [5.8 m], and [8.0 m]. The catalog contains 43,782 sources with S/N > 5 at 3.6 m, 19,993 of which have 13-band photometry. We compare this catalog to the publicly available MUSYC and FIREWORKS catalogs and discuss the differences. Using a high signal-to-noise sub-sample of 3391 sources with ([3.6] + [4.5])/2 < 21.2, we investigate the star formation rate history of massive galaxies out to z 1.8. We find that at z 1.8 at least 30% 7% of the most massive galaxies (M* > 10 11M) are passively evolving, in agreement with earlier results from surveys covering less area. 2011 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

published proceedings

  • The Astrophysical Journal

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Damen, M., Labb, I., van Dokkum, P. G., Franx, M., Taylor, E. N., Brandt, W. N., ... Rix, H.

citation count

  • 93

complete list of authors

  • Damen, M||LabbĂ©, I||van Dokkum, PG||Franx, M||Taylor, EN||Brandt, WN||Dickinson, M||Gawiser, E||Illingworth, GD||Kriek, M||Marchesini, D||Muzzin, A||Papovich, C||Rix, H-W

publication date

  • January 2011