1. The first and second data releases of the Kilo-Degree Survey
- Author
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Axel Buddendiek, O. Cordes, Kor G. Begeman, Edo van Uitert, Peter Schneider, Hendrik Hildebrandt, E. Puddu, Ami Choi, Hugo Buddelmeijer, Crescenzo Tortora, Danny Boxhoorn, Thomas D. Kitching, Gijs Verdoes Kleijn, Massimo Viola, Nivya Roy, Thomas Erben, William J. Sutherland, Catherine Heymans, Konrad Kuijken, Stefano Cavuoti, Mario Radovich, John McFarland, Willem-Jan Vriend, A. Rifatto, Fedor Getman, Reiko Nakajima, Massimo Dall'Ora, Edwin A. Valentijn, N. Irisarri, Henk Hoekstra, Ewout Helmich, Gert Sikkema, Fabian Köhlinger, Giovanni Covone, Maurizio Paolillo, Cristóbal Sifón, Massimo Capaccioli, Aniello Grado, Massimo Brescia, Zhuoyi Huang, Jelte T. A. de Jong, Dominik Klaes, Martin Eriksen, Giuseppe Longo, Joachim Harnois-Déraps, Léon V. E. Koopmans, Nicola R. Napolitano, Benjamin Joachimi, Francesco La Barbera, ITA, GBR, DEU, CAN, NLD, Astronomy, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, de Jong, J. T. A., Verdoes Kleijn, G. A., Boxhoorn, D. R., Buddelmeijer, H., Capaccioli, M., Getman, F., Grado, A., Helmich, E., Huang, Z., Irisarri, N., Kuijken, K., La Barbera, F., Mcfarland, J. P., Napolitano, N. R., Radovich, M., Sikkema, G., Valentijn, E. A., Begeman, K. G., Brescia, M., Cavuoti, S., Choi, A., Cordes, O. -M., Covone, G., Dall’Ora, M., Hildebrandt, H., Longo, G., Nakajima, R., Paolillo, M., Puddu, E., Rifatto, A., Tortora, C., van Uitert, E., Buddendiek, A., Harnois-Déraps, J., Erben, T., Eriksen, M. B., Heymans, C., Hoekstra, H., Joachimi, B., Kitching, T. D., Klaes, D., Koopmans, L. V. E., Köhlinger, F., Roy, N., Sifón, C., Schneider, P., Sutherland, W. J., Viola, M., Vriend, W. -J., de Jong, Jelte T. A., Verdoes Kleijn, Gijs A., Boxhoorn, Danny R., Buddelmeijer, Hugo, Capaccioli, Massimo, Getman, Fedor, Grado, Aniello, Helmich, Ewout, Huang, Zhuoyi, Irisarri, Nancy, Kuijken, Konrad, La Barbera, Francesco, Mcfarland, John P., Napolitano, Nicola R., Radovich, Mario, Sikkema, Gert, Valentijn, Edwin A., Begeman, Kor G., Brescia, Massimo, Cavuoti, Stefano, Choi, Ami, Cordes, Oliver-Mark, Covone, Giovanni, Dall'Ora, Massimo, Hildebrandt, Hendrik, Longo, Giuseppe, Nakajima, Reiko, Paolillo, Maurizio, Puddu, Emanuella, Rifatto, Agatino, Tortora, Crescenzo, van Uitert, Edo, Buddendiek, Axel, Harnois-Déraps, Joachim, Erben, Thoma, Eriksen, Martin B., Heymans, Catherine, Hoekstra, Henk, Joachimi, Benjamin, Kitching, Thomas D., Klaes, Dominik, Koopmans, Léon V. E., Köhlinger, Fabian, Roy, Nivya, Sifón, Cristóbal, Schneider, Peter, Sutherland, Will J., Viola, Massimo, and Vriend, Willem-Jan
- Subjects
QSOS ,Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,surveys ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxie ,survey ,Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysic ,Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) ,QC ,Weak gravitational lensing ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,QB ,Photometric redshift ,Physics ,VLT Survey Telescope ,Astrophysics::Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Quasar ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,galaxies: general ,Redshift ,Galaxy ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,Data quality ,Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) ,large-scale structure of Universe ,methods: observational ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics - Abstract
The Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) is an optical wide-field imaging survey carried out with the VLT Survey Telescope and the OmegaCAM camera. KiDS will image 1500 square degrees in four filters (ugri), and together with its near-infrared counterpart VIKING will produce deep photometry in nine bands. Designed for weak lensing shape and photometric redshift measurements, the core science driver of the survey is mapping the large-scale matter distribution in the Universe back to a redshift of ~0.5. Secondary science cases are manifold, covering topics such as galaxy evolution, Milky Way structure, and the detection of high-redshift clusters and quasars. KiDS is an ESO Public Survey and dedicated to serving the astronomical community with high-quality data products derived from the survey data, as well as with calibration data. Public data releases will be made on a yearly basis, the first two of which are presented here. For a total of 148 survey tiles (~160 sq.deg.) astrometrically and photometrically calibrated, coadded ugri images have been released, accompanied by weight maps, masks, source lists, and a multi-band source catalog. A dedicated pipeline and data management system based on the Astro-WISE software system, combined with newly developed masking and source classification software, is used for the data production of the data products described here. The achieved data quality and early science projects based on the data products in the first two data releases are reviewed in order to validate the survey data. Early scientific results include the detection of nine high-z QSOs, fifteen candidate strong gravitational lenses, high-quality photometric redshifts and galaxy structural parameters for hundreds of thousands of galaxies. (Abridged), Comment: 26 pages, 26 figures, 2 appendices; two new figures, several textual clarifications, updated references; accepted for publication in A&A
- Published
- 2015