Abstract / Description of output
In this paper, we describe the first data release of the Visible and
Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) Deep Extragalactic
Observations (VIDEO) survey. VIDEO is a ˜12 deg2 survey
in the near-infrared Z, Y, J, H and Ks bands, specifically
designed to enable the evolution of galaxies and large structures to be
traced as a function of both epoch and environment from the present day
out to z = 4, and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and the most massive
galaxies up to and into the epoch of reionization. With its depth and
area, VIDEO will be able to fully explore the period in the Universe
where AGN and starburst activity were at their peak and the first galaxy
clusters were beginning to virialize. VIDEO therefore offers a unique
data set with which to investigate the interplay between AGN, starbursts
and environment, and the role of feedback at a time when it was
potentially most crucial.
We provide data over the VIDEO-XMM3 tile, which also covers the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey Deep-1 field (CFHTLS-D1).
The released VIDEO data reach a 5σ AB-magnitude depth of Z = 25.7,
Y = 24.5, J = 24.4, H = 24.1 and Ks = 23.8 in 2 arcsec
diameter apertures (the full depth of Y = 24.6 will be reached within
the full integration time in future releases). The data are compared to
previous surveys over this field and we find good astrometric agreement
with the Two Micron All Sky Survey, and source counts in agreement with
the recently released UltraVISTA survey data. The addition of the VIDEO
data to the CFHTLS-D1 optical data increases the accuracy of photometric
redshifts and significantly reduces the fraction of catastrophic
outliers over the redshift range 0 <z <1 from 5.8 to 3.1 per
cent in the absence of an i-band luminosity prior. However, we expect
that the main improvement in photometric redshifts will come in the
redshift range 1 <z <4 due to the sensitivity to the Balmer and
4000 Å breaks provided by the near-infrared VISTA filters. All
images and catalogues presented in this paper are publicly available
through ESO's phase 3 archive and the VISTA Science Archive.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1281-1295 |
Journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
Volume | 428 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2013 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- astronomical data bases: miscellaneous
- surveys
- large-scale structure of Universe
- galaxies: general
- galaxies: high redshift