J-PLUS: The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey

¹ Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA), Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Plaza de San Juan, 1, 44001 Teruel, Spain
e-mail: cenarro@cefca.es
² Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA), Plaza de San Juan, 1, 44001 Teruel, Spain
³ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Vía Láctea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁴ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁵ Departamento de Astronomia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500, Porto Alegre 91501-970 RS, Brazil
⁶ Observatório Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (ON), Rua Gal. José Cristino 77, São Cristóvão, 20921-400 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
⁷ University of Michigan, Dept. Astronomy, 1085 S. University Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
⁸ University of Alabama, Dept. of Phys. & Astronomy, Gallalee Hall, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401, USA
⁹ Observatório do Valongo (OV), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Ladeira Pedro Antonio 43, 20080-090 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
¹⁰ Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG), Universidade de São Paulo (USP), Rua do Matão 1226, C. Universitária, 05508-090 São Paulo, Brazil
¹¹ Department of Physics, JINA Center for the Evolution of the Elements, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA
¹² Centro de Astrobiología, CSIC-INTA, ESAC campus, camino bajo del castillo s/n, 28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
¹³ Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 59072-970 Natal, RN, Brazil
¹⁴ Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Sergipe (UFS), Av. Marechal Rondon, s/n, 49000-000 São Cristóvão, SE, Brazil
¹⁵ X-ray Astrophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
¹⁶ Department of Physics, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
¹⁷ Tartu Observatory, Tartu University, Observatooriumi 1, Tõravere, 61602 Tartu Maakond, Estonia
¹⁸ Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 1371, 05508-090 São Paulo, SP, Brazil
¹⁹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Glorieta de Astronomía, s/n, 18008 Granada, Spain
²⁰ Laboratoire d’astroparticules et cosmologie (APC), 10 Rue Alice Domon et Léonie Duquet, 75013 Paris, France
²¹ Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica (IRyA), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro # 8701, Ex-Hda. San José de la Huerta, 58341 Morelos, Mich., Mexico
²² Instituto de Ciencias del Cosmos (ICC), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Martíi Franquès 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
²³ Universitat de Barcelona, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 585, 08007, Barcelona
²⁴ European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), 28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain
²⁵ PITT PACC, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
²⁶ Instituto de Física de Cantabria (Universidad de Cantabria – CSIC), Av. de los Castros, 39005 Santander Cantabria, Spain
²⁷ Departamento de Física, Campus Reitor João David Ferreira Lima, s/n – Trindade, 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
²⁸ Finnish Centre for Astronomy with ESO (FINCA), University of Turku, Väisäläntie 20, 21500 Piikkiö, Finland
²⁹ Tuorla Observatory, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, Väisäläntie 20, 21500 Piikkiö, Finland
³⁰ University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
³¹ Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Passeig Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
³² Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
³³ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
³⁴ Departament de Física, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, C/Esteve Terrades 5, 08860 Casteldefells, Spain
³⁵ Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia, c/Gran Capità 2–4, Edif. Nexus 201, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
³⁶ Instituto de Física (IF), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), 68528, CEP, 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
³⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 S 33rd St, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
³⁸ Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Departamento de Astrofísica, Facultad de Ciencias, Plaza de Ciencias, 1, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain
³⁹ European Southern Observatory (ESO), Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile
⁴⁰ Campus Duque de Caxias, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), CEP, 25245-390 Duque de Caxias, RJ, Brazil

Received: 16 March 2018
Accepted: 26 November 2018

Abstract

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 deg² 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 deg² of J-PLUS data, containing about 4.3 million stars and 3.0 million galaxies at r <  21 mag. With a goal of 8500 deg² 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.