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J. Masegosa

Other affiliations: University of Sheffield
Bio: J. Masegosa is an academic researcher from Spanish National Research Council. The author has contributed to research in topics: Galaxy & Redshift. The author has an hindex of 23, co-authored 44 publications receiving 3106 citations. Previous affiliations of J. Masegosa include University of Sheffield.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
Sebastián F. Sánchez1, Robert C. Kennicutt2, A. Gil de Paz3, G. van de Ven4, José M. Vílchez1, Lutz Wisotzki5, C. J. Walcher5, D. Mast1, J. A. L. Aguerri1, J. A. L. Aguerri6, Sergio Albiol-Pérez7, Almudena Alonso-Herrero1, João Alves8, J. Bakos6, J. Bakos1, T. Bartakova9, Joss Bland-Hawthorn10, Alessandro Boselli11, D. J. Bomans12, África Castillo-Morales3, C. Cortijo-Ferrero1, A. de Lorenzo-Cáceres6, A. de Lorenzo-Cáceres1, A. del Olmo1, Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar12, Angeles I. Díaz13, Simon Ellis14, Simon Ellis10, Jesús Falcón-Barroso6, Jesús Falcón-Barroso1, Hector Flores15, Anna Gallazzi16, Begoña García-Lorenzo6, Begoña García-Lorenzo1, R. M. González Delgado1, Nicolas Gruel, Tim Haines17, C. Hao18, Bernd Husemann5, J. Iglesias-Páramo1, Knud Jahnke4, Benjamin D. Johnson19, Bruno Jungwiert20, Bruno Jungwiert21, Veselina Kalinova4, C. Kehrig5, D. Kupko5, Angel R. Lopez-Sanchez22, Angel R. Lopez-Sanchez14, Mariya Lyubenova4, R. A. Marino3, R. A. Marino1, E. Mármol-Queraltó1, E. Mármol-Queraltó3, I. Márquez1, J. Masegosa1, Sharon E. Meidt4, Jairo Méndez-Abreu1, Jairo Méndez-Abreu6, Ana Monreal-Ibero1, C. Montijo1, A. Mourao23, G. Palacios-Navarro7, Polychronis Papaderos24, Anna Pasquali25, Reynier Peletier, Enrique Pérez1, I. Pérez26, Andreas Quirrenbach, M. Relaño26, F. F. Rosales-Ortega13, F. F. Rosales-Ortega1, Martin Roth5, T. Ruiz-Lara26, Patricia Sanchez-Blazquez13, C. Sengupta1, R. Singh4, Vallery Stanishev23, Scott Trager27, Alexandre Vazdekis6, Alexandre Vazdekis1, Kerttu Viironen1, Vivienne Wild28, Stefano Zibetti16, Bodo L. Ziegler8 
TL;DR: The Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey as discussed by the authors was designed to provide a first step in this direction by obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopic information of a diameter selected sample of similar to 600 galaxies in the Local Universe.
Abstract: The final product of galaxy evolution through cosmic time is the population of galaxies in the local universe. These galaxies are also those that can be studied in most detail, thus providing a stringent benchmark for our understanding of galaxy evolution. Through the huge success of spectroscopic single-fiber, statistical surveys of the Local Universe in the last decade, it has become clear, however, that an authoritative observational description of galaxies will involve measuring their spatially resolved properties over their full optical extent for a statistically significant sample. We present here the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, which has been designed to provide a first step in this direction. We summarize the survey goals and design, including sample selection and observational strategy. We also showcase the data taken during the first observing runs (June/July 2010) and outline the reduction pipeline, quality control schemes and general characteristics of the reduced data. This survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopic information of a diameter selected sample of similar to 600 galaxies in the Local Universe (0.005 < z < 0.03). CALIFA has been designed to allow the building of two-dimensional maps of the following quantities: (a) stellar populations: ages and metallicities; (b) ionized gas: distribution, excitation mechanism and chemical abundances; and (c) kinematic properties: both from stellar and ionized gas components. CALIFA uses the PPAK integral field unit (IFU), with a hexagonal field-of-view of similar to 1.3 square', with a 100% covering factor by adopting a three-pointing dithering scheme. The optical wavelength range is covered from 3700 to 7000 angstrom, using two overlapping setups (V500 and V1200), with different resolutions: R similar to 850 and R similar to 1650, respectively. CALIFA is a legacy survey, intended for the community. The reduced data will be released, once the quality has been guaranteed. The analyzed data fulfill the expectations of the original observing proposal, on the basis of a set of quality checks and exploratory analysis: (i) the final datacubes reach a 3 sigma limiting surface brightness depth of similar to 23.0 mag/arcsec(2) for the V500 grating data (similar to 22.8 mag/arcsec(2) for V1200); (ii) about similar to 70% of the covered field-of-view is above this 3 sigma limit; (iii) the data have a blue-to-red relative flux calibration within a few percent in most of the wavelength range; (iv) the absolute flux calibration is accurate within similar to 8% with respect to SDSS; (v) the measured spectral resolution is similar to 85 km s(-1) for V1200 (similar to 150 km s(-1) for V500); (vi) the estimated accuracy of the wavelength calibration is similar to 5 km s(-1) for the V1200 data (similar to 10 km s(-1) for the V500 data); (vii) the aperture matched CALIFA and SDSS spectra are qualitatively and quantitatively similar. Finally, we show that we are able to carry out all measurements indicated above, recovering the properties of the stellar populations, the ionized gas and the kinematics of both components. The associated maps illustrate the spatial variation of these parameters across the field, reemphasizing the redshift dependence of single aperture spectroscopic measurements. We conclude from this first look at the data that CALIFA will be an important resource for archaeological studies of galaxies in the Local Universe.

1,143 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the selection procedure and statistical properties of the galaxy sample used by the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, a public legacy survey of 600 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy.
Abstract: We describe and discuss the selection procedure and statistical properties of the galaxy sample used by the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, a public legacy survey of 600 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy. The CALIFA "mother sample" was selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 photometric catalogue to include all galaxies with an r-band isophotal major axis between 45 '' and 79 : 2 '' and with a redshift 0 : 005 M-r > -23 : 1 and over a stellar mass range between 10(9.7) and 10(11.4) M-circle dot. In particular, within these ranges, the diameter selection does not lead to any significant bias against - or in favour of - intrinsically large or small galaxies. Only below luminosities of M-r = -19 (or stellar masses < 10(9.7) M-circle dot) is there a prevalence of galaxies with larger isophotal sizes, especially of nearly edge-on late-type galaxies, but such galaxies form < 10% of the full sample. We estimate volume-corrected distribution functions in luminosities and sizes and show that these are statistically fully compatible with estimates from the full SDSS when accounting for large-scale structure. For full characterization of the sample, we also present a number of value-added quantities determined for the galaxies in the CALIFA sample. These include consistent multi-band photometry based on growth curve analyses; stellar masses; distances and quantities derived from these; morphological classifications; and an overview of available multi-wavelength photometric measurements. We also explore different ways of characterizing the environments of CALIFA galaxies, finding that the sample covers environmental conditions from the field to genuine clusters. We finally consider the expected incidence of active galactic nuclei among CALIFA galaxies given the existing pre-CALIFA data, finding that the final observed CALIFA sample will contain approximately 30 Sey2 galaxies.

258 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The first public data release (DR1) of the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey is presented in this article, which consists of science-grade optical datacubes for the first 100 of eventually 600 nearby (0.005 < z < 0.03) galaxies, obtained with the integral field spectrograph PMAS/PPak mounted on the 3.5 m telescope at the Calal Alto observatory.
Abstract: We present the first public data release (DR1) of the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey. It consists of science-grade optical datacubes for the first 100 of eventually 600 nearby (0.005 < z < 0.03) galaxies, obtained with the integral-field spectrograph PMAS/PPak mounted on the 3.5 m telescope at the Calar Alto observatory. The galaxies in DR1 already cover a wide range of properties in color-magnitude space, morphological type, stellar mass, and gas ionization conditions. This offers the potential to tackle a variety of open questions in galaxy evolution using spatially resolved spectroscopy. Two different spectral setups are available for each galaxy, (i) a low-resolution V500 setup covering the nominal wavelength range 3745-7500 angstrom with a spectral resolution of 6.0 angstrom (FWHM), and (ii) a medium-resolution V1200 setup covering the nominal wavelength range 3650-4840 angstrom with a spectral resolution of 2.3 angstrom (FWHM). We present the characteristics and data structure of the CALIFA datasets that should be taken into account for scientific exploitation of the data, in particular the effects of vignetting, bad pixels and spatially correlated noise. The data quality test for all 100 galaxies showed that we reach a median limiting continuum sensitivity of 1.0 x 10(-18) erg s(-1) cm(-2) angstrom(-1) arcsec(-2) at 5635 angstrom and 2.2 x 10(-18) erg s(-1) cm(-2) angstrom(-1) arcsec(-2) at 4500 angstrom for the V500 and V1200 setup respectively, which corresponds to limiting r and g band surface brightnesses of 23.6 mag arcsec(-2) and 23.4 mag arcsec(-2), or an unresolved emission-line flux detection limit of roughly 1 x 10(-17) erg s(-1) cm(-2) arcsec(-2) and 0.6 x 10(-17) erg s(-1) cm(-2) arcsec(-2), respectively. The median spatial resolution is 3 ''.7, and the absolute spectrophotometric calibration is better than 15% (1 sigma). We also describe the available interfaces and tools that allow easy access to this first public CALIFA data at http://califa.caha.es/DR1.

251 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply the fossil record method based on spectral synthesis techniques to recover the following physical properties for each spatial resolution element in the target galaxies: the stellar mass surface density (μ_*), stellar extinction (A_V), lightweighted and mass-weighted ages (L, M), and mass weighted metallicity (M).
Abstract: Various different physical processes contribute to the star formation and stellar mass assembly histories of galaxies. One important approach to understanding the significance of these different processes on galaxy evolution is the study of the stellar population content of today's galaxies in a spatially resolved manner. The aim of this paper is to characterize in detail the radial structure of stellar population properties of galaxies in the nearby universe, based on a uniquely large galaxy sample, considering the quality and coverage of the data. The sample under study was drawn from the CALIFA survey and contains 300 galaxies observed with integral field spectroscopy. These cover a wide range of Hubble types, from spheroids to spiral galaxies, while stellar masses range from M_* ∼ 10^9 to 7 x 10^11 M_⨀. We apply the fossil record method based on spectral synthesis techniques to recover the following physical properties for each spatial resolution element in our target galaxies: the stellar mass surface density (μ_*), stellar extinction (A_V), light-weighted and mass-weighted ages ( _L, _M), and mass-weighted metallicity ( _M). To study mean trends with overall galaxy properties, the individual radial profiles are stacked in seven bins of galaxy morphology (E, S0, Sa, Sb, Sbc, Sc, and Sd). We confirm that more massive galaxies are more compact, older, more metal rich, and less reddened by dust. Additionally, we find that these trends are preserved spatially with the radial distance to the nucleus. Deviations from these relations appear correlated with Hubble type: earlier types are more compact, older, and more metal rich for a given M-star, which is evidence that quenching is related to morphology, but not driven by mass. Negative gradients of _L are consistent with an inside-out growth of galaxies, with the largest _L gradients in Sb-Sbc galaxies. Further, the mean stellar ages of disks and bulges are correlated and with disks covering a wider range of ages, and late-type spirals hosting younger disks. However, age gradients are only mildly negative or flat beyond R∼2 HLR (half light radius), indicating that star formation is more uniformly distributed or that stellar migration is important at these distances. The gradients in stellar mass surface density depend mostly on stellar mass, in the sense that more massive galaxies are more centrally concentrated. Whatever sets the concentration indices of galaxies obviously depends less on quenching/morphology than on the depth of the potential well. There is a secondary correlation in the sense that at the same M_* early-type galaxies have steeper gradients. The μ_* gradients outside 1 HLR show no dependence on Hubble type. We find mildly negative _M gradients, which are shallower than predicted from models of galaxy evolution in isolation. In general, metallicity gradients depend on stellar mass, and less on morphology, hinting that metallicity is affected by both - the depth of the potential well and morphology/quenching. Thus, the largest _M gradients occur in Milky Way-like Sb-Sbc galaxies, and are similar to those measured above the Galactic disk. Sc spirals show flatter _M gradients, possibly indicating a larger contribution from secular evolution in disks. The galaxies from the sample have decreasing-outward stellar extinction; all spirals show similar radial profiles, independent from the stellar mass, but redder than E and S0. Overall, we conclude that quenching processes act in manners that are independent of mass, while metallicity and galaxy structure are influenced by mass-dependent processes.

245 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented the results of a homogeneous X-ray analysis for 82 nearby low-ionisation, narrow emission-line regions (LINERs) selected from the catalogue of Carrillo et al.
Abstract: We present the results of a homogeneous X-ray analysis for 82 nearby low-ionisation, narrow emission-line regions (LINERs) selected from the catalogue of Carrillo et al. (1999, Rev. Mex. Astron. Astrofis., 35, 187). All sources have available Chandra (68 sources) and/or XMM-Newton (55 sources) observations. This is the largest sample of LINERs with X-ray spectral data (60 out of the 82 objects), and it significantly improves our previous analysis based on Chandra data for 51 LINERs (Gonzalez-Martin et al. 2006b, A&A, 460, 45). It both increases the sample size and adds XMM-Newton data . New models permit the inclusion of double absorbers in the spectral fits. Nuclear X-ray morphology is inferred from the compactness of detected nuclear sources in the hard band (4.5–8.0 keV). Sixty per cent of the sample shows a compact nuclear source and are classified as active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates. The spectral analysis indicates that best fits involve a composite model: 1) absorbed primary continuum and 2) soft spectrum below 2 keV described by an absorbed scatterer and/or a thermal component. The resulting median spectral parameters and their standard deviations are = 2.11 ± 0.52, = 0.54 ± 0.30 keV, = 21.32 0.71 and = 21.93 1.36. We complement our X-ray results with an analysis of HST optical images and literature data on emission lines, radio compactness, and stellar population. After adding all these multiwavelength data, we conclude that evidence supports the AGN nature of their nuclear engine for 80% of the sample (66 out of 82 objects).

185 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review progress over the past decade in observations of large-scale star formation, with a focus on the interface between extragalactic and Galactic studies.
Abstract: We review progress over the past decade in observations of large-scale star formation, with a focus on the interface between extragalactic and Galactic studies. Methods of measuring gas contents and star-formation rates are discussed, and updated prescriptions for calculating star-formation rates are provided. We review relations between star formation and gas on scales ranging from entire galaxies to individual molecular clouds.

2,525 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the far future, evolution will mostly be secular, the slow rearrangement of energy and mass that results from interactions involving collective phenomena such as bars, oval disks, spiral structure, and triaxial dark halos as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: ▪ Abstract The Universe is in transition. At early times, galactic evolution was dominated by hierarchical clustering and merging, processes that are violent and rapid. In the far future, evolution will mostly be secular—the slow rearrangement of energy and mass that results from interactions involving collective phenomena such as bars, oval disks, spiral structure, and triaxial dark halos. Both processes are important now. This review discusses internal secular evolution, concentrating on one important consequence, the buildup of dense central components in disk galaxies that look like classical, merger-built bulges but that were made slowly out of disk gas. We call these pseudobulges. We begin with an “existence proof”—a review of how bars rearrange disk gas into outer rings, inner rings, and stuff dumped onto the center. The results of numerical simulations correspond closely to the morphology of barred galaxies. In the simulations, gas is transported to small radii, where it reaches high densities and...

1,767 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: SDSS-IV as mentioned in this paper is a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs: the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA), the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), and the Time Domain Spectroscopy Survey (TDSS).
Abstract: We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median $z\sim 0.03$). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between $z\sim 0.6$ and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July.

1,200 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Sebastián F. Sánchez1, Robert C. Kennicutt2, A. Gil de Paz3, G. van de Ven4, José M. Vílchez1, Lutz Wisotzki5, C. J. Walcher5, D. Mast1, J. A. L. Aguerri6, J. A. L. Aguerri1, Sergio Albiol-Pérez7, Almudena Alonso-Herrero1, João Alves8, J. Bakos6, J. Bakos1, T. Bartakova9, Joss Bland-Hawthorn10, Alessandro Boselli11, D. J. Bomans12, África Castillo-Morales3, C. Cortijo-Ferrero1, A. de Lorenzo-Cáceres1, A. de Lorenzo-Cáceres6, A. del Olmo1, Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar12, Angeles I. Díaz13, Simon Ellis10, Simon Ellis14, Jesús Falcón-Barroso1, Jesús Falcón-Barroso6, Hector Flores15, Anna Gallazzi16, Begoña García-Lorenzo1, Begoña García-Lorenzo6, R. M. González Delgado1, Nicolas Gruel, Tim Haines17, C. Hao18, Bernd Husemann5, J. Iglesias-Páramo1, Knud Jahnke4, Benjamin D. Johnson19, Bruno Jungwiert20, Bruno Jungwiert21, Veselina Kalinova4, C. Kehrig5, D. Kupko5, Angel R. Lopez-Sanchez22, Angel R. Lopez-Sanchez14, Mariya Lyubenova4, R. A. Marino1, R. A. Marino3, E. Mármol-Queraltó1, E. Mármol-Queraltó3, I. Márquez1, J. Masegosa1, Sharon E. Meidt4, Jairo Méndez-Abreu1, Jairo Méndez-Abreu6, Ana Monreal-Ibero1, C. Montijo1, A. Mourao23, G. Palacios-Navarro7, Polychronis Papaderos24, Anna Pasquali25, Reynier Peletier, Enrique Pérez1, I. Pérez26, Andreas Quirrenbach, M. Relaño26, F. F. Rosales-Ortega13, F. F. Rosales-Ortega1, Martin Roth5, T. Ruiz-Lara26, Patricia Sanchez-Blazquez13, C. Sengupta1, R. Singh4, Vallery Stanishev23, Scott Trager27, Alexandre Vazdekis1, Alexandre Vazdekis6, Kerttu Viironen1, Vivienne Wild28, Stefano Zibetti16, Bodo L. Ziegler8 
TL;DR: The Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey as discussed by the authors was designed to provide a first step in this direction by obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopic information of a diameter selected sample of similar to 600 galaxies in the Local Universe.
Abstract: The final product of galaxy evolution through cosmic time is the population of galaxies in the local universe. These galaxies are also those that can be studied in most detail, thus providing a stringent benchmark for our understanding of galaxy evolution. Through the huge success of spectroscopic single-fiber, statistical surveys of the Local Universe in the last decade, it has become clear, however, that an authoritative observational description of galaxies will involve measuring their spatially resolved properties over their full optical extent for a statistically significant sample. We present here the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, which has been designed to provide a first step in this direction. We summarize the survey goals and design, including sample selection and observational strategy. We also showcase the data taken during the first observing runs (June/July 2010) and outline the reduction pipeline, quality control schemes and general characteristics of the reduced data. This survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopic information of a diameter selected sample of similar to 600 galaxies in the Local Universe (0.005 < z < 0.03). CALIFA has been designed to allow the building of two-dimensional maps of the following quantities: (a) stellar populations: ages and metallicities; (b) ionized gas: distribution, excitation mechanism and chemical abundances; and (c) kinematic properties: both from stellar and ionized gas components. CALIFA uses the PPAK integral field unit (IFU), with a hexagonal field-of-view of similar to 1.3 square', with a 100% covering factor by adopting a three-pointing dithering scheme. The optical wavelength range is covered from 3700 to 7000 angstrom, using two overlapping setups (V500 and V1200), with different resolutions: R similar to 850 and R similar to 1650, respectively. CALIFA is a legacy survey, intended for the community. The reduced data will be released, once the quality has been guaranteed. The analyzed data fulfill the expectations of the original observing proposal, on the basis of a set of quality checks and exploratory analysis: (i) the final datacubes reach a 3 sigma limiting surface brightness depth of similar to 23.0 mag/arcsec(2) for the V500 grating data (similar to 22.8 mag/arcsec(2) for V1200); (ii) about similar to 70% of the covered field-of-view is above this 3 sigma limit; (iii) the data have a blue-to-red relative flux calibration within a few percent in most of the wavelength range; (iv) the absolute flux calibration is accurate within similar to 8% with respect to SDSS; (v) the measured spectral resolution is similar to 85 km s(-1) for V1200 (similar to 150 km s(-1) for V500); (vi) the estimated accuracy of the wavelength calibration is similar to 5 km s(-1) for the V1200 data (similar to 10 km s(-1) for the V500 data); (vii) the aperture matched CALIFA and SDSS spectra are qualitatively and quantitatively similar. Finally, we show that we are able to carry out all measurements indicated above, recovering the properties of the stellar populations, the ionized gas and the kinematics of both components. The associated maps illustrate the spatial variation of these parameters across the field, reemphasizing the redshift dependence of single aperture spectroscopic measurements. We conclude from this first look at the data that CALIFA will be an important resource for archaeological studies of galaxies in the Local Universe.

1,143 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) as mentioned in this paper employs dithered observations with 17 fiber-bundle integral field units that vary in diameter from 12'' (19 fibers) to 32'' (127 fibers).
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 A at R ~ 2000. With a typical integration time of 3 hr, MaNGA reaches a target r-band signal-to-noise ratio of 4-8 (A–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.

1,104 citations