News and Updates

Fifth release of UltraVISTA Public Survey data

Published: 05 May 2023

UltraVISTA is an ultra-deep near-infrared survey of the central region of the COSMOS field. The fifth UltraVISTA data release comprises stacked images in YJHKs and NB118 narrow-band filters, as well as single-band and dual-mode source lists. The data release also contains a five-band merged catalogue, created from the individual Ks-selected source lists. The release is based on the observations carried out from December 2009 to mid 2019, corresponding to 81125 individual images. This is three years more than DR4. The additional data have almost homogenised the exposure time in the “deep” and “ultra-deep” stripes in the J, H and Ks filters, which now reach the same depths to ∼0.15 mag.


Data Release of the MUSE Hubble Ultra-Deep Field surveys (AMUSED) mosaic cubes and catalogue

Published: 12 Apr 2023

The release of the MUSE Hubble Ultra-Deep Field survey (Programmes 094.A-0289(B), 095.A-0010(A), 096.A-0045(A), 096.A-0045(B) and 1101.A-0127, PI R. Bacon) includes the deepest spectroscopic survey ever performed. The MUSE mosaic data cubes, with their 3D content, amazing depth, wide spectral range, and excellent spatial and medium spectral resolution, are rich in information. The 3σ point-source flux limit of an unresolved emission line reaches 3.1×10-19 and 6.3×10-20 erg s-1 cm-2 at 10- and 141-hour depths, respectively. The redshifts of 2221 sources have securely been identified and measured. With the exception of eight stars, the collected sample consists of 25 nearby galaxies (z < 0.25), 677 [O ii] emitters (z = 0.25 - 1.5), 201 galaxies in the MUSE redshift desert range (z = 1.5 - 2.8) and 1308 Lyα emitters (z = 2.8 - 6.7). This represents an order of magnitude more than the collection of all spectroscopic redshifts obtained before MUSE in the Hubble ultra-deep field area (i.e., 2221 versus 292). At high redshift (z > 3), the difference is even more striking, with a factor of 65 increase (1308 versus 20).


ALPACA all-sky images from Paranal available in the Archive

Published: 06 Apr 2023

Summary

ALPACA - ALL-sky Paranal Apical CAmera is an all-sky camera at the Paranal Observatory. ALPACA supports the nigh-time science operations imaging the visible sky to monitor the sky condition. ALPACA images the sky 400-700 nm spectral window with a 95% transmission, using a gSENSE detector with a quantum efficiency with a 60% quantum efficiency at 600 nm. Its detector consists of a 7kx7k pixel array of 9 micrometers in size (update: was upgraded in October 2023 from the original 4k x 4x). These characteristics allow a high angular resolution in the imaging of the sky above Paranal (of order ~ 7arcmin/pixel). These and other specifications are listed in Table 1.

Exposure time could be auto adjusted depending on sky background brightness if required. Experience shows that with Moon halo images of 300+ seconds exposures are adequate. Currently, the data acquisition has been set to get 2 minutes exposure images with a cadence of 2 minutes and few seconds. The images are stored in FITS format. Keeping a standard exposure ensure a more stable condition for subsequent post-processing and analysis.

ALPACA comes with an enclosure that covers and protects the camera (Plexiglas hemispheric protection and camera system) from dust and weather during daytime. The camera operates from astronomical evening twilight, all through the night until the end of the astronomical twilight in the morning.

The data can be retrieved from the Archive main raw interface, selecting ALPACA as the instrument in the "Other" category.

An example of an ALPACA all-sky image is shown in Figure 3.

Location

As to maximize the all-sky image down to the horizon, ALPACA has been located towards the south end of the VLT platform and away from the tall UT enclosures. Views of the setup are shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2.


GRA4MAT Narrow Off-Axis Mode / First Observations of Beta Pic b

Published: 04 Apr 2023

The Beta Pic dataset was obtained on 3 February 2023, in the course of the ESO-led development of a new GRA4MAT narrow off-axis mode. This new mode allows an observer to specify small offsets where to point MATISSE, with respect to the fringe tracking target. This mode is very similar to the dual on-axis mode of GRAVITY that was successfully applied to exoplanet spectroscopy. It will be offered to the community in the Call for Proposals for Period 112.


Revised version of the UltraVISTA COSMOS2020 FARMER catalogue available

Published: 09 Mar 2023

With the new release DR4.1.1 the UltraVISTA team provides an updated version of the COSMOS2020 FARMER catalogue, previously released in DR4.1. The team has since discovered that the magnitude errors were underestimated in the large error regime and the newly released catalogue addresses this issue. The flux errors and all derived quantities such as photo-zs are not affected, nor is affected the CLASSIC catalogue.


Third Data Release from the Galaxy Clusters At Vircam (GCAV) ESO VISTA Public Survey

Published: 21 Feb 2023

Galaxy Clusters At Vircam (GCAV) is a survey (programme 198.A-2008, PI M. Nonino) belonging to the second cycle of ESO VISTA Public Surveys. It is aimed at observing 20 massive galaxy clusters in the infrared Y, J, and Ks bands. Those clusters have also been observed in many ground- and space-based programmes (e.g. CLASH, RELICS, HFF/ BUFFALO). The survey will mainly explore galaxy evolution over a wide, and still largely unexplored, diversity of cluster environments.

This third data release contains tile images, weightmaps and related source lists from data collected over the time period from October 2016 to March 2022 and corresponding to all the 525 OBs collected in the whole survey with ESO grade A and B. The tile images reach a typical sensitivity in AB magnitude of ~23.5 in Y, ~23.3 in J, and ~22.4 in Ks. The total area covered by the observations is ~38 deg2 and the total volume of the release is 2.1 TB.

Images and source lists of OBs released in DR1 (224 files) and DR2 (616 files) are replaced in DR3, with new astrometric reference system (GAIA-EDR3). 


First data release of the deep MUSE mosaic from the Large Programme 1100.A-0528

Published: 14 Feb 2023

This is the first data release, DR1 of the IFS deep cube obtained in the MUSE Ultra Deep Field (MUDF) as part of the Large Programme ID 1100.A-0528, PI M. Fumagalli.


Second data release of the XSHOOTER spectra from the Large Programme INSPIRE published

Published: 14 Feb 2023

This second data release (DR2) of the X-Shooter ESO Large Program 1104.B-0370, "INvestigating Stellar Population In Relics", INSPIRE, PI C. Spiniello, provides 1-D spectra for 21 new systems and new versions for the spectra of the 19 ultra-compact massive galaxies already released in DR1, to which the NIR band spectra have been added.


New data release of MUSE data cubes of the Fornax3D Survey

Published: 25 Jan 2023

The Fornax3D survey is an integral field spectroscopic survey of the Fornax cluster's galaxies. This data release contains mosaiced IFS MUSE cubes with their white lamp images for the 31 galaxies brighter than mB=15 within the virial radius of the cluster. The total data volume is 121.5 Gb. The survey was conducted under the ESO programme 296.B-5054(A), PI M. Sarzi and E. Iodice, with MUSE at the ESO VLT in wide-field mode. This instrument configuration ensures a spatial sampling of 0.2×0.2 arcsec2, a wavelength coverage from 4650 to 9300 Å with a spectral sampling of 1.25 Å/pixel, and a nominal spectral resolution of FWHM = 2.5 Å at 7000 Å. The main science goals of the survey are to understand the assembly history of the Fornax cluster, the early-type galaxies and the formation of substructures in galaxies. For more information on the background and goals please consult the latest paper by Sarzi, Iodice et al. on the Messenger.


New data release from the APEX Large CO Heterodyne Outflow Legacy Supercam survey of Orion (ALCOHOLS) project

Published: 19 Dec 2022

This collection provides wide-field spectral line imaging data cubes (5 cubes, total volume: 11.50Gb) of the Orion A and B giant molecular clouds in the 12CO (J=3-2) line at a frequency of 345.795990 GHz from observations collected under ESO programme 094.C-0935, PI: T. Stanke, and the Swedish programme 094.F-9343. The data were obtained using the SuperCAM 64-pixel heterodyne array camera at the APEX telescope in December 2014. The cubes cover a total area of ~2.7 deg2 in the Orion A and B giant molecular clouds. The frequency axis includes the full spectral extent of the CO line detected in the area, including high-velocity line wings from protostellar molecular outflows. The data reveal a wealth of cloud structures and allow for an unbiased search for protostellar molecular outflows over a large portion of a star-forming cloud. A full presentation of the survey overview and data was published in Stanke et al. (2022, A&A 658, A178).


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