NOAO >   Observing Info >   Approved Programs >   2008A-0086

# Proposal Information for 2008A-0086

Address: CASA, 389 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0389, USA

CoI: John T. Stocke, Univ. of Colorado
CoI: Steven V. Penton, Univ. of Colorado
CoI: James C. Green, Univ. of Colorado

Title: Gas and Galaxies in the Cosmic Web: A Galaxy Redshift Survey around HST/COS Target Sight Lines

Abstract: The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) will be installed aboard HST in August, 2008. The unprecedented far-UV throughput of COS (20-30 times that of STIS at \rm R ~ 20,000) will revolutionize many studies, including the investigation of the local intergalactic medium (IGM), its baryon content, metallicity, and relationship to galaxies. The COS Science Team has allocated ~ 200 HST orbits of GTO time to map the baryon content of the local Universe in galaxies and gas...the Cosmic Web''. We propose to acquire HYDRA spectra of all galaxies brighter than g=20 with photo-z\rm 's < z_\rm AGN that are within 20\arcmin of the 39 AGN targeted by the COS Science Team. This makes our survey complete to L < L^* for z \lesssim 0.3. These data, along with intergalactic \lya and metal-line absorbers discovered in the COS far- UV spectra, will allow us to assess the extent of metal transport from galaxies, the filling factor of metal-enriched gas in filaments, and the metallicity of gas in voids. Multi-filter MOSAIC images are required for 18 of our 39 sight lines to select spectroscopic targets (the other 21 sight lines have SDSS imaging available).

National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360

 NOAO >   Observing Info >   Approved Programs >   2008A-0086