Panchromatic properties of galaxies in wide-field optical spectroscopic and photometric surveys

TL;DR

This paper reviews the rapid growth of wide-field optical spectroscopic and photometric surveys over the past 15 years, highlighting their impact on galaxy studies and future prospects for multiwavelength, pan-chromatic observations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the development and significance of pan-chromatic galaxy surveys and discusses future directions in multi-facility spectroscopic and photometric observations.

Findings

Explosion in galaxy redshift data over 15 years

Expansion from single-band to multiwavelength surveys

Significant impact on astrophysics research

Abstract

The past 15 years have seen an explosion in the number of redshifts recovered via wide area spectroscopic surveys. At the current time there are approximately 2million spectroscopic galaxy redshifts known (and rising) which represents an extraordinary growth since the pioneering work of Marc Davis and John Huchra. Similarly there has been a parallel explosion in wavelength coverage with imaging surveys progressing from single band, to multi-band, to truly multiwavelength or pan-chromatic involving the coordination of multiple facilities. With these empirically motivated studies has come a wealth of new discoveries impacting almost all areas of astrophysics. Today individual surveys, as best demonstrated by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, now rank shoulder-to-shoulder alongside major facilities. In the coming years this trend is set to continue as we being the process of designing and conducting the next generation of spectroscopic surveys supported by multi-facility wavelength coverage.