First Insights into the Spitzer Wide-Area Infrared Extragalactic Legacy Survey (SWIRE) Galaxy Populations

Lonsdale, Carol; Polletta, Maria del Carmen; Surace, Jason; Shupe, Dave; Fang, Fan; Xu, C. Kevin; Smith, Harding E.; Siana, Brian; Rowan-Robinson, Michael; Babbedge, Tom; Oliver, Seb; Pozzi, Francesca; Davoodi, Payam; Owen, Frazer; Padgett, Deborah; Frayer, Dave; Jarrett, Tom; Masci, Frank; O'Linger, JoAnne; Conrow, Tim; Farrah, Duncan; Morrison, Glenn; Gautier, Nick; Franceschini, Alberto; Berta, Stefano; Perez-Fournon, Ismael; Hatziminaoglou, Evanthia; Afonso-Luis, Alejandro; Dole, Herve; Stacey, Gordon; Serjeant, Steve; Pierre, Marguerite; Griffin, Matt; Puetter, Rick
Bibliographical reference

The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Volume 154, Issue 1, pp. 54-59.

Advertised on:
9
2004
Number of authors
34
IAC number of authors
3
Citations
164
Refereed citations
136
Description
We characterize the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic Legacy Survey (SWIRE) galaxy populations in the SWIRE validation field within the Lockman Hole, based on the 3.6-24 μm Spitzer data and deep U, g', r', i' optical imaging within an area ~1/3 deg2 for ~16,000 Spitzer SWIRE sources. The entire SWIRE survey will discover over 2.3 million galaxies at 3.6 μm and almost 350,000 at 24 μm ~70,000 of these will be five-band 3.6-24 μm detections. The colors cover a broad range, generally well represented by redshifted spectral energy distributions of known galaxy populations; however, significant samples of unusually blue objects in the [3.6]-[4.5] color are found, as well as many objects very red in the 3.6-24 μm mid-IR. Nine of these are investigated and are interpreted as star-forming systems, starbursts, and active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from z=0.37 to 2.8, with luminosities from LIR=1010.3 to 1013.7 Lsolar.