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| Keck Baryonic Structure Survey | |
|---|---|
| Name | Keck Baryonic Structure Survey |
| Acronym | KBSS |
| Type | Observational survey |
| Instruments | Keck I, Keck II, LRIS, MOSFIRE, HIRES |
| Start | 2000s |
| Principal investigators | Charles C. Steidel |
| Field | Extragalactic astronomy |
Keck Baryonic Structure Survey The Keck Baryonic Structure Survey was an observational program using the W. M. Keck Observatory to study the baryonic components of high-redshift galaxies and the intergalactic medium. It combined multiwavelength spectroscopy and imaging to connect the properties of galaxies observed with instruments on Keck I and Keck II to absorption features measured against background quasars and galaxies from surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Hubble Deep Field.
The survey aimed to map relationships between star-forming galaxies and the circumgalactic medium by leveraging facilities including Keck Observatory, W. M. Keck Observatory, Keck I, Keck II, Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer, LRIS, and High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer across fields overlapping with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Subaru Telescope. Led by astronomers such as Charles C. Steidel and collaborators from institutions like the California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Institution for Science, and University of California, Berkeley, the program tied deep imaging from projects like the Hubble Deep Field and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey to spectroscopic campaigns informed by catalogs from the Two Micron All Sky Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Survey design incorporated multi-object spectroscopy with LRIS and near-infrared multiplex spectroscopy with MOSFIRE on Keck I and high-resolution echelle spectroscopy with HIRES on Keck I. The instrumentation suite allowed simultaneous study of rest-frame ultraviolet and optical tracers tied to ionic transitions cataloged in works by teams at Space Telescope Science Institute and analyzed with methods used in Sloan Digital Sky Survey data releases. Observing strategies referenced techniques developed at facilities such as the Palomar Observatory and the Subaru Telescope to optimize target multiplexing and signal-to-noise for faint sources identified in fields surveyed by Hubble Space Telescope programs.
Targets were primarily star-forming galaxies at redshifts z~2–3 selected using color criteria similar to those pioneered in surveys at Palomar Observatory and refined with photometry from the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based imaging from the Subaru Telescope. Background sources included bright quasars from catalogs compiled by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and radio-selected objects from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory surveys, enabling absorption-line studies with HIRES and moderate-resolution spectroscopy with LRIS and MOSFIRE. Fields were chosen to overlap with legacy datasets such as the Hubble Deep Field and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey to maximize ancillary data from instruments aboard Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope.
Data reduction pipelines combined custom software with community tools developed around packages used at the Space Telescope Science Institute and in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey collaboration, employing algorithms for sky subtraction and wavelength calibration informed by experience at Keck Observatory and Palomar Observatory. Spectral fitting used templates and codes comparable to those applied in studies at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and analysis frameworks used by the European Southern Observatory community. Analysis emphasized measurements of metal-line column densities, kinematic profiles, and emission-line diagnostics tied to stellar population models from groups at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
The survey produced constraints on the distribution, metallicity, and kinematics of the circumgalactic medium around z~2–3 galaxies, linking outflow phenomena to star-formation activity characterized in works associated with Charles C. Steidel and teams at the California Institute of Technology. Results showed correlations between absorption strength and galaxy properties that informed theoretical models developed by groups at the Institute for Advanced Study and the Princeton University astrophysics group, and influenced simulations run with codes from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Findings were compared to observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and radio surveys from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory to build a multiwavelength picture of baryon cycling and galactic feedback in the early universe.
Legacy products included reduced spectra, catalogs of redshifts and absorption-line measurements, and imaging mosaics distributed to the community in formats consistent with archives maintained by the Space Telescope Science Institute and the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive. Data releases enabled follow-up studies by researchers at institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, and the Carnegie Institution for Science, and were used in comparative analyses with datasets from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Hubble Space Telescope archives.
The program was a collaboration among investigators at institutions including the California Institute of Technology, the Carnegie Institution for Science, the University of California, Berkeley, and international partners at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the University of Cambridge, with observing time provided by the W. M. Keck Observatory partnership. Funding came from agencies and foundations such as the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and private benefactors associated with the W. M. Keck Foundation.
Category:Observational astronomy surveys