Authors

Kevin Bundy, University of Tokyo, Japan
Matthew A. Bershady, University of Wisconsin - Madison
David R. Law, University of Toronto, Canada
Renbin Yan, University of KentuckyFollow
Niv Drory, University of Texas - Austin
Nicholas MacDonald, University of Washington
David A. Wake, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Brian Cherinka, University of Toronto, Canada
José R. Sánchez-Gallego, University of KentuckyFollow
Anne-Marie Weijmans, University of St. Andrews, UK
Daniel Thomas, University of Portsmouth, UK
Christy Tremonti, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Karen Masters, University of Portsmouth, UK
Lodovico Coccato, University of Portsmouth, UK
Aleksandar M. Diamond-Stanic, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca, University of Nottingham, UK
Vladimir Avila-Reese, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico
Carles Badenes, University of Pittsburgh
Jésus Falcón-Barroso, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain
Francesco Belfiore, University of Cambridge, UK
Dmitry Bizyaev, Apache Point Observatory
Guillermo A. Blanc, Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science
Joss Bland-Hawthorn, University of Sydney, Australia
Michael R. Blanton, New York University
Joel R. Brownstein, University of Utah
Nell Byler, University of Washington
Michele Cappellari, University of Oxford, UK
Charlie Conroy, University of California - Santa Cruz
Aaron A. Dutton, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany
Eric Emsellem, European Southern Observatory, Germany
Kai Zhang, University of KentuckyFollow

Abstract

We present an overview of a new integral field spectroscopic survey called MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory), one of three core programs in the fourth-generation Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) that began on 2014 July 1. MaNGA will investigate the internal kinematic structure and composition of gas and stars in an unprecedented sample of 10,000 nearby galaxies. We summarize essential characteristics of the instrument and survey design in the context of MaNGA's key science goals and present prototype observations to demonstrate MaNGA's scientific potential. MaNGA employs dithered observations with 17 fiber-bundle integral field units that vary in diameter from 12'' (19 fibers) to 32'' (127 fibers). Two dual-channel spectrographs provide simultaneous wavelength coverage over 3600-10300 Å at R ~ 2000. With a typical integration time of 3 hr, MaNGA reaches a target r-band signal-to-noise ratio of 4-8 (Å–1 per 2'' fiber) at 23 AB mag arcsec–2, which is typical for the outskirts of MaNGA galaxies. Targets are selected with M * ≳ 109 M using SDSS-I redshifts and i-band luminosity to achieve uniform radial coverage in terms of the effective radius, an approximately flat distribution in stellar mass, and a sample spanning a wide range of environments. Analysis of our prototype observations demonstrates MaNGA's ability to probe gas ionization, shed light on recent star formation and quenching, enable dynamical modeling, decompose constituent components, and map the composition of stellar populations. MaNGA's spatially resolved spectra will enable an unprecedented study of the astrophysics of nearby galaxies in the coming 6 yr.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-10-2014

Notes/Citation Information

Published in The Astrophysical Journal, v. 798, no. 1, 7, p. 1-24.

© 2015. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

The copyright holder has granted the permission for posting the article here.

Due to the large number of authors, only the first 30 and the authors affiliated with the University of Kentucky are listed in the author section above. For the complete list of authors, please download this article.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/798/1/7

Funding Information

Funding for SDSS-III and SDSS-IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Participating Institutions. Additional funding for SDSS-III comes from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Further information about both projects is available at www.sdss.org.

Due to the large number of funding sources, only the first few are listed in this section. For the complete list of funding sources, please download this article.

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