J-PLUS: The javalambre photometric local universe survey
The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) is an ongoing 12-band photometric optical survey, observing thousands of square degrees of the Northern Hemisphere from the dedicated JAST/T80 telescope at the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ). The T80Cam is a camera with a field of view of 2 deg 2 mounted on a telescope with a diameter of 83 cm, and is equipped with a unique system of filters spanning the entire optical range (3500-10 000 Å). This filter system is a combination of broad-, medium-, and narrow-band filters, optimally designed to extract the rest-frame spectral features (the 3700-4000 Å Balmer break region, Hδ, Ca H+K, the G band, and the Mg b and Ca triplets) that are key to characterizing stellar types and delivering a low-resolution photospectrum for each pixel of the observed sky. With a typical depth of AB ∼21.25 mag per band, this filter set thus allows for an unbiased and accurate characterization of the stellar population in our Galaxy, it provides an unprecedented 2D photospectral information for all resolved galaxies in the local Universe, as well as accurate photo-z estimates (at the δ z/(1 + z)∼0.005-0.03 precision level) for moderately bright (up to r∼20 mag) extragalactic sources. While some narrow-band filters are designed for the study of particular emission features ([O II]/λ3727, Hα/λ6563) up to z< 0.017, they also provide well-defined windows for the analysis of other emission lines at higher redshifts. As a result, J-PLUS has the potential to contribute to a wide range of fields in Astrophysics, both in the nearby Universe (Milky Way structure, globular clusters, 2D IFU-like studies, stellar populations of nearby and moderate-redshift galaxies, clusters of galaxies) and at high redshifts (emission-line galaxies at z≈0.77, 2.2, and 4.4, quasi-stellar objects, etc.). With this paper, we release the first ∼1000 deg 2 of J-PLUS data, containing about 4.3 million stars and 3.0 million galaxies at r< 21 mag. With a goal of 8500 deg 2 for the total J-PLUS footprint, these numbers are expected to rise to about 35 million stars and 24 million galaxies by the end of the survey. © ESO 2019. ; Funding for the J-PLUS Project has been provided by the Governments of Spain and Aragon through the Fondo de Inversiones de Teruel, by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO; under grants AYA2012-30789, AYA2013-40611-P, AYA2015-66211-C2-1-P, AYA2015-66211-C2-2, AYA2016-77846-P, AYA2016-77237-C3-1-P, AYA2016-75931-C2-1-P, AYA2017-86274-P, AGAURgrantSGR-661/2017, andICTS-2009-14), byFAPERJ the Government of Aragon, through the Grupo de Investigacion E16_17R, and by European FEDER funding (FCDD10-4E-867, FCDD13-4E-2685). Further support has been provided by the Ramon y Cajal programmes RYC-2016-20254, RYC-2011-08262 and RYC-2011-08529. This research has made use of the Spanish Virtual Observatory (http://svo.cab.inta-csic.es) supported from the Spanish MINECO through grant AYA2014-55216. We also acknowledge Spanish CSIC (I-COOP+ 2016 program) through grant COOPB20263. The Brazilian agencies FAPESP and the National Observatory of Brazil have also contributed to this project. We acknowledge financial support from the Fundacao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - FAPERJ (fellowship Nota 10, PDR-10), from CNPq through BP grant 312307/2015-2 and Universal Grants 459553/20143, PQ 302037/2015-2, and PDE 200289/2017-9), FINEP grants REF. 1217/13 -01.13.0279.00 and REF 0859/10 -01.10.0663.00, from FAPERJ grant E-26/202.835/2016, and CAPES (Science without Borders program, Young Talent Fellowship, BJT) through grants A062/2013 and CAPES-PNPD 2940/2011. The FAPESP grants no. 2015/12745-6, 2014/11338-5, 2014/07684-5, 2013/04582-4 and 2009/54202-8 are also acknowledged. Finally, the authors acknowledge partial support from grant PHY 14-30152; Physics Frontier Center/JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE), awarded by the US National Science Foundation. ; Peer Reviewed