The GHOSTS survey. I. Hubble space telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys data.

Authors

D. J. Radburn-Smith, University of Washington - Seattle Campus
R. S. de Jong, Leibniz-Institut fur Astrophysik Potsdam
A. C. Seth, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
J. Bailin, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
E. F. Bell, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
T. M. Brown, Space Telescope Science Institute
J. S. Bullock, University of California, Irvine
S. Courteau, Queen's University - Kingston, Ontario
J. J. Dalcanton, University of Washington - Seattle Campus
H. C. Ferguson, Space Telescope Science Institute
P. Goudfrooij, Space Telescope Science Institute
S. Holfeltz, Space Telescope Science Institute
Benne W. Holwerda, University of Louisville
C. Purcell, University of Pittsburgh
J. Sick, Queen's University - Kingston, Ontario
D. Streich, Leibniz-Institut fur Astrophysik Potsdam
M. Vlajic, Leibniz-Institut fur Astrophysik Potsdam
D. B. Zucker, Macquarie University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2011

Department

Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

We present an overview of the GHOSTS survey, the largest study to date of the resolved stellar populations in the outskirts of disk galaxies. The sample consists of 14 disk galaxies within 17 Mpc, whose outer disks and halos are imaged with the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). In the first paper of this series, we describe the sample, explore the benefits of using resolved stellar populations, and discuss our ACS F606W and F814W photometry. We use artificial star tests to assess completeness and use overlapping regions to estimate photometric uncertainties. The median depth of the survey at 50% completeness is 2.7 mag below the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB). We comprehensively explore and parameterize contamination from unresolved background galaxies and foreground stars using archival fields of high-redshift ACS observations. Left uncorrected, these would account for 100.65×F814W−19.0 detections per mag per arcsec2. We therefore identify several selection criteria that typically remove 95% of the contaminants. Even with these culls, background galaxies are a significant limitation to the surface brightness detection limit which, for this survey, is typically V ∼ 30 mag arcsec−2. The resulting photometric catalogs are publicly available and contain some 3.1 million stars across 76 ACS fields, predominantly of low extinction. The uniform magnitudes of TRGB stars in these fields enable galaxy distance estimates with 2%–7% accuracy.

Comments

Copyright 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/195/2/18

Original Publication Information

Radburn-Smith, D. J., et al. "The GHOSTS Survey. I. Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys Data." 2011. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 195(2): 27 pp.

ThinkIR Citation

Radburn-Smith, D. J.; de Jong, R. S.; Seth, A. C.; Bailin, J.; Bell, E. F.; Brown, T. M.; Bullock, J. S.; Courteau, S.; Dalcanton, J. J.; Ferguson, H. C.; Goudfrooij, P.; Holfeltz, S.; Holwerda, Benne W.; Purcell, C.; Sick, J.; Streich, D.; Vlajic, M.; and Zucker, D. B., "The GHOSTS survey. I. Hubble space telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys data." (2011). Faculty and Staff Scholarship. 243.
https://ir.library.louisville.edu/faculty/243

DOI

10.1088/0067-0049/195/2/18