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| COSMOS (astronomy project) | |
|---|---|
| Name | COSMOS (astronomy project) |
| Type | Extragalactic survey |
| Location | Earth |
| Established | 2001 |
| Operators | National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, European Southern Observatory, Subaru Telescope, Keck Observatory |
COSMOS (astronomy project) is a deep, multiwavelength astronomical survey centered on a two-square-degree equatorial field designed to study the formation and evolution of galaxies, large-scale structure, and active galactic nuclei across cosmic time. Initiated in the early 2000s, the project combined observations from space telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and XMM-Newton with ground-based facilities including the Subaru Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Keck Observatory, and Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope. COSMOS has produced legacy catalogs and imaging used by teams affiliated with institutions such as the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Tokyo, and Max Planck Society.
COSMOS was conceived as a contiguous deep field to fill the gap between narrow pencil-beam surveys like the Hubble Deep Field and wide-area surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Two Micron All Sky Survey. The survey targeted a blank field near the celestial equator to enable observations from both northern and southern facilities including Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea and Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory. COSMOS emphasizes uniform, multiwavelength coverage from X-ray through radio to map structures on scales of tens of megaparsecs and to trace galaxy evolution from redshift z~0 to z>6. Principal investigators and steering committees included scientists associated with Space Telescope Science Institute, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
The COSMOS field spans approximately two square degrees, selected to minimize Galactic extinction and contamination from bright foreground objects, a criterion informed by studies from Infrared Astronomical Satellite and Extinction mapping efforts. High-resolution optical imaging was obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys, while near-infrared imaging used instruments such as Subaru's MOIRCS and VISTA cameras. Mid-infrared data were provided by the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera, and far-infrared through follow-ups with Herschel Space Observatory. X-ray coverage was provided by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton, and radio observations were acquired with arrays including the Very Large Array and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. Spectroscopic programs employed multi-object spectrographs on Keck Observatory (DEIMOS), Very Large Telescope (VIMOS), and Subaru Telescope (FOCAS), coordinated with photometric redshift efforts drawing on methods developed at Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
COSMOS combined imaging, spectroscopy, and ancillary data through unified pipelines adapted from software used at Space Telescope Science Institute and observatory archives such as the European Southern Observatory Archive and Infrared Science Archive. Raw data underwent bias subtraction, flat-fielding, astrometric calibration tied to reference frames like Gaia and photometric calibration referencing standards from Landolt catalog and 2MASS. Source extraction employed tools derived from SExtractor and custom deblending algorithms influenced by work at Bell Labs and Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. Photometric redshift estimation utilized template libraries anchored to spectroscopic samples from Sloan Digital Sky Survey and techniques pioneered by teams at University of Hawaii and Princeton University. Data homogenization and catalog merging incorporated cross-matching with catalogs from GALEX, WISE, and FIRST to construct multiwavelength spectral energy distributions.
The primary goals of COSMOS included quantifying galaxy stellar mass assembly, mapping the evolution of cosmic large-scale structure, constraining the role of environment in galaxy quenching, and measuring the coevolution of supermassive black holes and host galaxies. Key results include robust measurements of the stellar mass function evolution reported by groups at University of California, Santa Cruz and University of Toronto, identification of proto-cluster candidates corroborated with follow-up by Subaru Telescope teams, and constraints on dark matter halo distributions using weak gravitational lensing analyses led by researchers at Leiden University and University of Pennsylvania. COSMOS X-ray catalogs uncovered obscured active galactic nuclei populations studied by teams at Columbia University and University of Maryland, while radio and millimeter surveys revealed dust-obscured star formation characterized by collaborations with National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique. The survey influenced cosmological parameter constraints through studies comparing large-scale structure with predictions from the Planck (spacecraft) results.
COSMOS functioned as an international consortium involving universities, national laboratories, and observatories including National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, European Southern Observatory, and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. It interfaced with contemporaneous and successor surveys such as the CANDELS program on Hubble Space Telescope, the Bootes field surveys, the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey, and later wide-field projects including LSST (Vera C. Rubin Observatory) and Euclid (spacecraft). Collaborative working groups formed around themes like weak lensing, galaxy morphology, active nuclei, and environment, connecting researchers from institutions such as Yale University, University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, and University of Chicago.
COSMOS data releases were staged, providing calibrated images, photometric catalogs, spectroscopic redshifts, and value-added products including photometric redshift catalogs and lensing shear maps. Data distribution relied on archives and portals maintained by organizations like the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, Space Telescope Science Institute, and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, enabling access by teams at Max Planck Society, European Space Agency, Australian National University, and others. The release policy emphasized open access to facilitate community science, supporting follow-up proposals at facilities such as Keck Observatory, Subaru Telescope, Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and future missions like James Webb Space Telescope.
Category:Astronomical surveys