Completion of the GOYA photometric survey

Abstract

The Galaxy Origins and Young Assembly (GOYA) survey is designed to study the formation and evolution of 1 < z < 3 galaxies with the aim of learning on the epoch and the mechanisms by which galaxies assembled the bulk of their stars and acquired their present structure and dynamics. Since 1998 GOYA has been the scientific driver behind EMIR, an ambitious common-user near-infrared multi-object spectrograph for GranTeCan, and as a result it will benefit from half its guaranteed time. In preparation for the exploitation of EMIR, in 2000 we started a deep near-infrared photometric survey, for sample selection and characterisation. Now that this research has reached its final stages, we report here on its current status and its finalisation plans. Overall, this survey has images of ∼0.5 square degrees of high-latitude sky to limiting AB magnitude Ks = 23.7 (3-σ, 1'' aperture) and corresponding depths at U, B, V, R, I and J. The sample of sources obtained is being extended to include fields available to Gemini-S, since a recent collaboration with the Flamingos-2 Early Science Survey Team grants GOYA privileged access to this pioneering near-infrared multi-object spectrograph.