High-redshift Galaxy Evolution Studied in Large-scale Extragalactic Sub-Millimetre Surveys

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

Galaxies are the basic units of structure in our Universe. Understanding their evolution is one of the most important goals of experimental cosmology today. In the redshift range z = 1--3 massive galaxies go through an evolutionary stage characterized by high rates of star formation. These early, dusty, galaxies are best identified and characterized in the sub-millimetre. The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope - BLAST was designed to conduct confusion-limited and wide-area extragalactic and Galactic surveys at three sub-millimetre bands from a long-duration balloon (LDB) platform. These wavelengths, 250, 350 and 500 microns are impossible or very difficult to observe from even the best ground-based telescope sites. BLAST flew on a high altitude balloon platform above Antarctica for 11 days in December 2006. Here we present unique sub-millimetre extragalactic surveys which, for the first time, combines large-area coverage with multiple wavelengths at high-resolution. Two shallow maps with a total area of 19 square degrees and a mean depth of 22 mJy/beam detect over 1500 sources at greater than 5 sigma. A third deep map with an area of 0.58 square degrees and depth of 6 mJy/beam detected over 100 sources at greater than 5 sigma. BLAST-detected sources represent >95% of all galaxies detected between 100 and 500 microns. Further analysis of sources in all three bands allows for photometric redshift determination of individual galaxies. From this we can determine the star formation history of the universe. Spectroscopic redshifts can be obtained for a subset of BLAST sources to refine this technique.

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