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arXiv · 1005.4068

The WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel (WISP) Survey

H. Atek·M. Malkan·P. McCarthy·H. Teplitz·C. Scarlata·B. Siana·A. Henry·J. Colbert·N. R. Ross·C. Bridge·A. J. Bunker·A. Dressler·R. A. E. Fosbury·C. martin·H. Shim
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Abstract

We present the WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel (WISP) Survey. WISP is obtaining slitless, near-infrared grism spectroscopy of ~ 90 independent, high-latitude fields by observing in the pure parallel mode with Wide Field Camera-3 on the Hubble Space Telescope for a total of ~ 250 orbits. Spectra are obtained with the G102 (lambda=0.8-1.17 microns, R ~ 210) and G141 grisms (lambda=1.11-1.67 microns, R ~ 130), together with direct imaging in the J- and H-bands (F110W and F140W, respectively). In the present paper, we present the first results from 19 WISP fields, covering approximately 63 square arc minutes. For typical exposure times (~ 6400 sec in G102 and ~ 2700 sec in G141), we reach 5-sigma detection limits for emission lines of 5 x 10^(-17) ergs s^(-1) cm^(-2) for compact objects. Typical direct imaging 5sigma-limits are 26.8 and 25.0 magnitudes (AB) in F110W and F140W, respectively. Restricting ourselves to the lines measured with highest confidence, we present a list of 328 emission lines, in 229 objects, in a redshift range 0.3 < z < 3. The single-line emitters are likely to be a mix of Halpha and [OIII]5007,4959 A, with Halpha predominating. The overall surface density of high-confidence emission-line objects in our sample is approximately 4 per arcmin^(2).These first fields show high equivalent width sources, AGN, and post starburst galaxies. The median observed star formation rate of our Halpha selected sample is 4 Msol/year. At intermediate redshifts, we detect emission lines in galaxies as faint as H_140 ~ 25, or M_R < -19, and are sensitive to star formation rates down to less than 1 Msol/year. The slitless grisms on WFC3 provide a unique opportunity to study the spectral properties of galaxies much fainter than L* at the peak of the galaxy assembly epoch.

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H. Atek, M. Malkan, P. McCarthy, H. Teplitz, C. Scarlata, B. Siana, A. Henry, J. Colbert, N. R. Ross, C. Bridge, A. J. Bunker, A. Dressler, R. A. E. Fosbury, C. martin, H. Shim. 2010-05-21. The WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel (WISP) Survey. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/723/1/104

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