THE NEXT GENERATION VIRGO CLUSTER SURVEY (NGVS). I. INTRODUCTION TO THE SURVEY

Journal Article · Tue May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/200/1/4· OSTI ID:22047821

Ferrarese, Laura; Cote, Patrick; Gwyn, S D. J.; MacArthur, Lauren A; McConnachie, Alan W; Blakeslee, John P ^[1]; Cuillandre, Jean-Charles ^[2]; Peng, Eric W ^[3]; Duc, Pierre-Alain ^[4]; Boselli, A ^[5]; Mei, Simona ^[6]; Erben, Thomas ^[7]; Durrell, Patrick R ^[8]; Christopher Mihos, J ^[9]; Jordan, Andres; Puzia, Thomas H ^[10]; Lancon, Ariane ^[11]; Emsellem, Eric ^[12]; Balogh, Michael L ^[13]; Van Waerbeke, Ludovic ^[14] ; others, and

---

1. Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council of Canada, Victoria, BC, V9E 2E7 (Canada)
2. Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corporation, Kamuela, HI 96743 (United States)
3. Department of Astronomy, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China)
4. AIM Paris Saclay, CNRS/INSU, CEA/Irfu, Universite Paris Diderot, Orme des Merisiers, F-91191 Gif sur Yvette cedex (France)
5. Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, UMR 6110 CNRS, 38 rue F. Joliot-Curie, F-13388 Marseille (France)
6. GEPI, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, 5 Place Jules Jannssen, F-92195 Meudon (France)
7. Argelander-Institut fuer Astronomie, University of Bonn, Auf dem Huegel 71, D-53121 Bonn (Germany)
8. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH (United States)
9. Department of Astronomy, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (United States)
10. Departamento de Astronomia y Astrofisica, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, 7820436 Macul, Santiago (Chile)
11. Observatoire Astronomique, Universite de Strasbourg and CNRS UMR 7550, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg (France)
12. Universite de Lyon 1, CRAL, Observatoire de Lyon, 9 av. Charles Andre, F-69230 Saint-Genis Laval (France)
13. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1 (Canada)
14. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z1 (Canada)

The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS) is a program that uses the 1 deg{sup 2} MegaCam instrument on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to carry out a comprehensive optical imaging survey of the Virgo cluster, from its core to its virial radius-covering a total area of 104 deg{sup 2}-in the u*griz bandpasses. Thanks to a dedicated data acquisition strategy and processing pipeline, the NGVS reaches a point-source depth of g Almost-Equal-To 25.9 mag (10{sigma}) and a surface brightness limit of {mu}{sub g} {approx} 29 mag arcsec{sup -2} (2{sigma} above the mean sky level), thus superseding all previous optical studies of this benchmark galaxy cluster. In this paper, we give an overview of the technical aspects of the survey, such as areal coverage, field placement, choice of filters, limiting magnitudes, observing strategies, data processing and calibration pipelines, survey timeline, and data products. We also describe the primary scientific topics of the NGVS, which include: the galaxy luminosity and mass functions; the color-magnitude relation; galaxy scaling relations; compact stellar systems; galactic nuclei; the extragalactic distance scale; the large-scale environment of the cluster and its relationship to the Local Supercluster; diffuse light and the intracluster medium; galaxy interactions and evolutionary processes; and extragalactic star clusters. In addition, we describe a number of ancillary programs dealing with 'foreground' and 'background' science topics, including the study of high-inclination trans-Neptunian objects; the structure of the Galactic halo in the direction of the Virgo Overdensity and Sagittarius Stream; the measurement of cosmic shear, galaxy-galaxy, and cluster lensing; and the identification of distant galaxy clusters, and strong-lensing events.

• OSTI ID: 22047821
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 200; ISSN 0067-0049; ISSN APJSA2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
BRIGHTNESS
COLOR
DATA ACQUISITION
DATA PROCESSING
DISTANCE
GALAXIES
GALAXY CLUSTERS
GALAXY NUCLEI
LUMINOSITY
MASS
PHOTOMETRY
POINT SOURCES
RED SHIFT
STAR CLUSTERS
TELESCOPES
VISIBLE RADIATION