Physics
Scientific paper
Jul 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009hst..prop12166e&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #12166. Cycle 18
Physics
Scientific paper
We propose the continuation of our highly successful HST/ACS SNAPshot survey of a sample of 123 very X-ray luminous clusters in the redshift range 0.3-0.7, detected and compiled by the MACS cluster survey. As demonstrated by dedicated HST observations of the 12 most distant MACS clusters {GO-09722} as well as by the MACS SNAPshots of an additional 25 obtained with ACS so far in Cycles 14 and 15, these systems frequently exhibit strong gravitational lensing as well as spectacular examples of violent galaxy evolution. A large number of additional MACS SNAPs have since been obtained with WFPC2, leading to the discovery of several more powerful cluster lenses. The dramatic loss, however, of depth, field-of-view, and angular resolution compared to ACS led to significantly reduced scientific returns, underlining the need for ACS for this project. The proposed observations will provide important constraints on the cluster mass distributions, on the physical nature of galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-gas interactions in cluster cores, and will yield a set of optically bright, lensed galaxies for further 8-10m spectroscopy. For those of our targets with existing ACS SNAPshot images, we propose SNAPshots in the WFC3 F110W and F140W passbands to obtain colour information that will greatly improve the secure identification of multiple-image systems and may, in the form of F606W or F814W dropouts, lead to the lensing-enabled discovery of very distant galaxies at z>5. Acknowledging the broad community interest in this sample {16 of the 25 targets of the approved MCT cluster program are MACS discoveries} we waive our data rights for these observations.This proposal is an updated and improved version of our successful Cycle 15 proposal of the same title. Alas, SNAP-10875 collected only six snapshots in the F606W or F814W passbands, due to, first, a clerical error at STScI which caused the program to be barred from execution for four months and, ultimately, the failure of ACS. With ACS restored, and WFC3 providing additional wavelength and redshift leverage, we wish to resume this previously approved project.;
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