# The Extended Disk Galaxy Exploration Science Survey: Description and Surface Brightness Profile Properties

## TL;DR

This paper presents the EDGES survey of 92 nearby galaxies using deep near-infrared imaging to analyze their surface brightness profiles, stellar halos, and a newly discovered tidal stream, providing insights into galaxy structure and evolution.

## Contribution

It introduces the EDGES survey with unprecedented depth in near-infrared imaging, revealing detailed surface brightness profiles and stellar halo features in a diverse galaxy sample.

## Key findings

- Surface brightness profiles show a wide range of disc scalelengths.
- Breaks in profiles are more common than in previous studies.
- Evidence suggests some profile breaks are due to stellar halos.

## Abstract

The survey description and near-infrared properties for 92 galaxies are presented for the Extended Disc Galaxy Exploration Science (EDGES) Survey, along with an investigation into the properties of the stellar halos of these galaxies. EDGES is a Spitzer Space Telescope Warm Mission program designed to reach the surface brightness limit ($\sim$0.5 kJy sr$^{-1}$ or 29 AB mag arcsec$^{-2}$) of the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) 3.6 and 4.5 $\mu$m bands for a wide range of galaxy types found within the local volume. The surface brightness profiles exhibit a large range in disc scalelength, with breaks more frequently seen than in previous studies, owing in large part to the extremely deep near-infrared imaging. A number of these surface brightness profile breaks may be due to stellar halos, up to 7 galaxies out of the full sample of 92 galaxies, and we explore these implications in relation to current cosmological models. We also report the discovery of a new tidal stream near NGC 3953.