THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE WIDE FIELD CAMERA 3 EARLY RELEASE SCIENCE DATA: PANCHROMATIC FAINT OBJECT COUNTS FOR 0.2-2 {mu}m WAVELENGTH

Journal Article · Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/193/2/27· OSTI ID:21560363

Windhorst, Rogier A; Cohen, Seth H; Mechtley, Matt; Rutkowski, Michael J ^[1]; Hathi, Nimish P ^[2]; McCarthy, Patrick J; Seibert, Mark ^[3]; Ryan, Jr, Russell E ^[4]; Haojing, Yan ^[5]; Baldry, Ivan K ^[6]; Driver, Simon P; Hill, David T; Kelvin, Lee S; Robotham, Aaron S. G. ^[7]; Frogel, Jay A ^[8]; Koekemoer, Anton M ^[9]; O'Connell, Robert W ^[10]; Straughn, Amber N ^[11]; Tuffs, Richard J ^[12]; Balick, Bruce ^[13]

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1. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871404, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404 (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521 (United States)
3. Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Pasadena, CA 91101-1292 (United States)
4. Department of Physics, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616 (United States)
5. Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States)
6. Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Birkenhead CH41 1LD (United Kingdom)
7. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, Fife KY16 9SS (United Kingdom)
8. Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Washington, DC 20005 (United States)
9. Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
10. Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325 (United States)
11. NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
12. Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK), Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
13. Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1580 (United States)

We describe the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Early Release Science (ERS) observations in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) South field. The new WFC3 ERS data provide calibrated, drizzled mosaics in the UV filters F225W, F275W, and F336W, as well as in the near-IR filters F098M (Y{sub s} ), F125W (J), and F160W (H) with 1-2 HST orbits per filter. Together with the existing HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) GOODS-South mosaics in the BViz filters, these panchromatic 10-band ERS data cover 40-50 arcmin{sup 2} at 0.2-1.7 {mu}m in wavelength at 0.''07-0.''15 FWHM resolution and 0.''090 Multidrizzled pixels to depths of AB {approx_equal} 26.0-27.0 mag (5{sigma}) for point sources, and AB {approx_equal} 25.5-26.5 mag for compact galaxies. In this paper, we describe (1) the scientific rationale, and the data taking plus reduction procedures of the panchromatic 10-band ERS mosaics, (2) the procedure of generating object catalogs across the 10 different ERS filters, and the specific star-galaxy separation techniques used, and (3) the reliability and completeness of the object catalogs from the WFC3 ERS mosaics. The excellent 0.''07-0.''15 FWHM resolution of HST/WFC3 and ACS makes star-galaxy separation straightforward over a factor of 10 in wavelength to AB {approx_equal} 25-26 mag from the UV to the near-IR, respectively. Our main results are: (1) proper motion of faint ERS stars is detected over 6 years at 3.06 {+-} 0.66 mas year{sup -1} (4.6{sigma}), consistent with Galactic structure models; (2) both the Galactic star counts and the galaxy counts show mild but significant trends of decreasing count slopes from the mid-UV to the near-IR over a factor of 10 in wavelength; (3) combining the 10-band ERS counts with the panchromatic Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey counts at the bright end (10 mag {approx}< AB {approx}< 20 mag) and the Hubble Ultra Deep Field counts in the BVizY{sub s}JH filters at the faint end (24 mag {approx}< AB {approx}< 30 mag) yields galaxy counts that are well measured over the entire flux range 10 mag {approx}< AB {approx}< 30 mag for 0.2-2 {mu}m in wavelength; (4) simple luminosity+density evolution models can fit the galaxy counts over this entire flux range. However, no single model can explain the counts over this entire flux range in all 10 filters simultaneously. More sophisticated models of galaxy assembly are needed to reproduce the overall constraints provided by the current panchromatic galaxy counts for 10 mag {approx}< AB {approx}< 30 mag over a factor of 10 in wavelength.

• OSTI ID: 21560363
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Vol. 193, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0067-0049/193/2/27; ISSN 0067-0049
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CAMERAS
CATALOGS
FILTERS
GALAXIES
PROPER MOTION
STARS
TELESCOPES
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
MOTION
RADIATIONS