About Us
The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is an astronomical survey designed to probe the formation and evolution of galaxies as a function of both cosmic time (redshift) and the local galaxy environment. The survey covers a 2 square degree equatorial field with spectroscopy and X-ray to radio imaging by most of the major space-based telescopes and a number of large ground based telescopes. Over 2 million galaxies are detected, spanning 75% of the age of the Universe. COSMOS is led by Caitlin Casey, Jeyhan Kartaltepe, and Vernesa Smolcic and involves more than 200 scientists in a dozen countries. More information on the COSMOS team members can be found here.
Any questions? - Contact us using this form.
Stay up-to-date! - Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to our Youtube channel.
Spotlight
COSMOS-Webb selected as JWST’s largest Cycle 1 program
When the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)—the long-awaited successor to the Hubble Space Telescope—becomes operational in 2022, one of its first orders of business will be mapping the earliest structures of the universe. A team of nearly 50 researchers led by scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology and University of Texas at Austin will attempt to do so through the COSMOS-Webb program, the largest General Observer program selected for JWST’s first year.
Over the course of 208.6 observing hours, the COSMOS-Webb program will conduct an ambitious survey of half a million galaxies with multi-band, high-resolution near infrared imaging and an unprecedented 32,000 galaxies in mid infrared. The scientists involved said that because COSMOS-Webb is a treasury program, they will rapidly release data to the public so it can lead to countless other studies by other researchers.
The COSMOS-Webb survey will map 0.6 square degrees of the sky—about the area of three full moons—using JWST’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument while simultaneously mapping a smaller 0.2 square degrees with the Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Credit: J. Kartaltepe/RIT; C. Casey/UT Austin; A. Koekemoer/STScI
Nick Scoville receives the 2021 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship Prize
The 2021 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship, celebrating a career of eminence in astrophysical research, goes to our very own Nick Scoville (Caltech) for lifelong contributions to our understanding of molecular gas and star formation in the Milky Way and other galaxies, for visionary leadership, and for inspiring generations of early career astronomers.
Snakes and Butterflies
Imagine your eyes could see in the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum and you went out and looked towards the constellation of Sextans, where the COSMOS field is located. You would be able to distinguish several weird shapes in the sky showing jets or lobes of radio emission, forming snakes, slugs, and butterflies. These extended radio Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) have the nickname FR-type radio galaxies.
The latest work by Vardoulaki et al. (https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.10721) of FR-type radio AGN in COSMOS uses the data from the 3 GHz VLA-COSMOS survey (Smolčić et al. 2017) to investigate the physical properties of the sources, their host galaxies and the large scale environment in order to find links with the shapes they display in the radio sky.
You can read the publication here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.10721
Relating mass and star formation rates
What's the relation between the mass of galaxies and their rate for star formation? The new paper by Sarah Leslie and collaborators measures this relation for 200,000 galaxies in the COSMOS field.
This relation between rate of star formation (SFR) and mass is called the main-sequence. It is observed across a large amount of cosmic time (redshifts). The paper by Leslie et al. provides a coherent measurement of this main-sequence up to redshift of 5 (about 13 billion years in the past). To do this, they use mean stacks of 3 GHz radio-continuum images to derive average SFRs for ∼ 200,000 mass-selected galaxies.
Check out her YouTube video explaining her paper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMNp4qXp0FM
