The miniJPAS survey: A preview of the Universe in 56 colors^⋆

¹ Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA), Plaza San Juan, 1, 44001 Teruel, Spain
² Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Manuel Lardizabal Ibilbidea, 4, San Sebastián, Spain
e-mail: silvia.bonoli@dipc.org
³ Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao, Spain
⁴ Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA), Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Plaza San Juan, 1, 44001 Teruel, Spain
⁵ Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, Rua do Matão 1371, CEP 05508-090, São Paulo, Brazil
⁶ Observatório Nacional, Ministério da Ciencia, Tecnologia, Inovação e Comunicações, Rua General José Cristino, 77, São Cristóvão, 20921-400 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
⁷ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía – CSIC, Apdo 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain
⁸ Nũcleo de Astrofísica e Cosmologia, PPGCosmo & Dep. de Física, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vitória, 29075-910 ES, Brazil
⁹ Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Av. Marechal Rondon, s/n, 49000-000 São Cristóvão, SE, Brazil
¹⁰ Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal da Bahia, 40210-340 Salvador, BA, Brazil
¹¹ Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics (ASIAA), 11F of Astronomy-Mathematics Building, AS/NTU, No. 1, Section4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
¹² Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC), Avda. Los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain
¹³ Departamento de Astronomia, Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
¹⁴ Instituto de Matematica Estatistica e Fisica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (IMEF–FURG), Rio Grande, RS, Brazil
¹⁵ Campus Duque de Caxias, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 25265-970 Duque de Caxias, RJ, Brazil
¹⁶ Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er-Sheva 84105, Israel
¹⁷ Community Science and Data Center/NSF’s NOIRLab, 950 N. Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
¹⁸ Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
¹⁹ Observatório do Valongo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, 20080-090 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
²⁰ Department of Astronomy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China
²¹ Instituto Universitario de Física Aplicada a las Ciencias y las Tecnologías, Universidad de Alicante, San Vicent del Raspeig, 03080 Alicante, Spain
²² Departamento de Física Teórica and Instituto de Física de Partículas y del Cosmos, IPARCOS, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
²³ Departamento de Física – CFM – Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
²⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica, Sezione di Astronomia, Universitá di Trieste, Via Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy
²⁵ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via Tiepolo 11, 34131 Trieste, Italy
²⁶ IFPU – Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe, Via Beirut 2, 34151 Trieste, Italy
²⁷ INFN – Sezione di Trieste, 34100 Trieste, Italy
²⁸ Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu, Observatooriumi 1, 61602 Tõravere, Estonia
²⁹ European Southern Observatory (ESO), Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile
³⁰ Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, 311 West Hall, 1085 South University Ave., Ann Arbor, USA
³¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, Box 870324, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
³² Instituto de Física, Universidade de Brasília, Caixa Postal 04455, Brasília, DF 70919-970, Brazil
³³ Instruments4, 4121 Pembury Place, La Canada Flintridge, CA 91011, USA
³⁴ Zentrum für Astronomie, Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 12, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
³⁵ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Heidelberg, Philosophenweg 16, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
³⁶ Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2, 00014 Helsinki, Finland
³⁷ Physik-Department, Technische Universität München, James-Franck-Strasse, 85748 Garching, Germany
³⁸ Unidad Asociada “Grupo de Astrofísica Extragaláctica y Cosmología”, IFCA-CSIC/Universitat de València, València, Spain
³⁹ Department of Theoretical Physics, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, 48080 Bilbao, Spain
⁴⁰ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁴¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁴² LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, 75014 Paris, France
⁴³ Univeristé de Paris, 5 Rue Thomas Mann, 75013 Paris, France
⁴⁴ Departamento de Astronomia, Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil
⁴⁵ Departamento de Física Teórica e Experimental, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 59072-970 Natal, RN, Brazil
⁴⁶ Physics Department, University of Missouri Science and Technology, 1315 N Pine St., 65409 Rolla, MO, USA
⁴⁷ Gemini Observatory/NSF’s NOIRLab, Casilla 603, La Serena, Chile
⁴⁸ Departamento de Física, Matemática e Computação, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rod. Pres. Dutra, 27537-000 Resende, RJ, Brazil
⁴⁹ Observatori Astronómic de la Universitat de Valéncia, Ed. Instituts d’Investigació, Parc Científic. C/ Catedrático José Beltran, n2, 46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain
⁵⁰ Departament d’Astronomia i Astrofísica, Universitat de Valéncia, 46100 Burjassot, Spain
⁵¹ Centro de Investigaciones de Astronomía, CIDA, Mérida, Venezuela
⁵² Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica, UNAM, Campus Morelia, Michoacán 58089, Mexico
⁵³ Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, 211 Bryant Space Center, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
⁵⁴ APC, AstroParticule et Cosmologie, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, CEA/Irfu, Observatoire de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cite, 75205 Paris Cedex 13, France
⁵⁵ Department of Physics, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
⁵⁶ Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas, Department of Theoretical Physics, Rua Dr. Xavier Sigaud, 150, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22290-180, Brazil
⁵⁷ Institute of Physics, University of Szczecin, Wielkopolska 15, 70-451 Szczecin, Poland
⁵⁸ Dipartimento di Fisica “E. Pancini”, Universitá di Napoli “Federico II”, Via Cinthia, 80126 Napoli, Italy
⁵⁹ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), sez. di Napoli, Via Cinthia 9, 80126 Napoli, Italy
⁶⁰ Department of physics, Waseda University, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
⁶¹ Dpto. de Fiísica Moderna, Universidad de Cantabria, Avda. los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain
⁶² Departamento de Física Fundamental and IUFFyM, Universidad de Salamanca, 37008 Salamanca, Spain
⁶³ Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA) ESA – ESAC – Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain

Received: 3 July 2020
Accepted: 14 March 2021

Abstract

The Javalambre-Physics of the Accelerating Universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) will scan thousands of square degrees of the northern sky with a unique set of 56 filters using the dedicated 2.55 m Javalambre Survey Telescope (JST) at the Javalambre Astrophysical Observatory. Prior to the installation of the main camera (4.2 deg² field-of-view with 1.2 Gpixels), the JST was equipped with the JPAS-Pathfinder, a one CCD camera with a 0.3 deg² field-of-view and plate scale of 0.23 arcsec pixel⁻¹. To demonstrate the scientific potential of J-PAS, the JPAS-Pathfinder camera was used to perform miniJPAS, a ∼1 deg² survey of the AEGIS field (along the Extended Groth Strip). The field was observed with the 56 J-PAS filters, which include 54 narrow band (FWHM ∼ 145 Å) and two broader filters extending to the UV and the near-infrared, complemented by the u, g, r, i SDSS broad band filters. In this miniJPAS survey overview paper, we present the miniJPAS data set (images and catalogs), as we highlight key aspects and applications of these unique spectro-photometric data and describe how to access the public data products. The data parameters reach depths of mag_AB ≃ 22−23.5 in the 54 narrow band filters and up to 24 in the broader filters (5σ in a 3″ aperture). The miniJPAS primary catalog contains more than 64 000 sources detected in the r band and with matched photometry in all other bands. This catalog is 99% complete at r = 23.6 (r = 22.7) mag for point-like (extended) sources. We show that our photometric redshifts have an accuracy better than 1% for all sources up to r = 22.5, and a precision of ≤0.3% for a subset consisting of about half of the sample. On this basis, we outline several scientific applications of our data, including the study of spatially-resolved stellar populations of nearby galaxies, the analysis of the large scale structure up to z ∼ 0.9, and the detection of large numbers of clusters and groups. Sub-percent redshift precision can also be reached for quasars, allowing for the study of the large-scale structure to be pushed to z > 2. The miniJPAS survey demonstrates the capability of the J-PAS filter system to accurately characterize a broad variety of sources and paves the way for the upcoming arrival of J-PAS, which will multiply this data by three orders of magnitude.