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Galaxy Zoo: Morphological classifications for 120 000 galaxies in HST legacy imaging

  • Kyle W. Willett
  • , Melanie A. Galloway
  • , Steven P. Bamford
  • , Chris J. Lintott
  • , Karen L. Masters
  • , Claudia Scarlata
  • , B. D. Simmons
  • , Melanie Beck
  • , Carolin N. Cardamone
  • , Edmond Cheung
  • , Edward M. Edmondson
  • , Lucy F. Fortson
  • , Roger L. Griffith
  • , Boris Häußler
  • , Anna Han
  • , Ross Hart
  • , Thomas Melvin
  • , Michael Parrish
  • , Kevin Schawinski
  • , R. J. Smethurst
  • Arfon M. Smith

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We present the data release paper for the Galaxy Zoo: Hubble (GZH) project. This is the third phase in a large effort to measure reliable, detailed morphologies of galaxies by using crowdsourced visual classifications of colour-composite images. Images in GZH were selected from various publicly released Hubble Space Telescope legacy programmes conducted with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, with filters that probe the rest-frame optical emission from galaxies out to z ~ 1. The bulk of the sample is selected to have mI814W < 23.5, but goes as faint as mI814W < 26.8 for deep images combined over five epochs. The median redshift of the combined samples is 〈 z 〉 = 0.9 ± 0.6, with a tail extending out to z ≃ 4. The GZH morphological data include measurements of both bulge- and disc-dominated galaxies, details on spiral disc structure that relate to the Hubble type, bar identification, and numerous measurements of clump identification and geometry. This paper also describes a new method for calibrating morphologies for galaxies of different luminosities and at different redshifts by using artificially redshifted galaxy images as a baseline. The GZH catalogue contains both raw and calibrated morphological vote fractions for 119 849 galaxies, providing the largest data set to date suitable for large-scale studies of galaxy evolution out to z ~ 1.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4176-4203
Number of pages28
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume464
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Keywords

  • Catalogues
  • Galaxies: evolution
  • Galaxies: highredshift
  • Galaxies: structure
  • Methods: data analysis

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