The Hubble Deep Field - South

QSO J2233-606 UV Spectrum

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During the Hubble Deep Field - South campaign, STIS targeted QSO J2233-606 for ultraviolet spectroscopy and UV and optical imaging. The optical image is the deepest exposure ever made.
STIS HDF-S Image.

The Rationale

Starting on September 28, 1998 and for two weeks, the Hubble Space Telescope aimed at the same narrow slice of sky in the constellation Tucana. The observing strategy of the Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S) differs from its northern analogous in several respects. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph field was centered on a relatively bright (B~17.5) quasar at intermediate redshift (J2233-606, z(em)=2.238). Besides, the installation of STIS and NICMOS on HST in 1997 has enabled parallel observations with three cameras. In this way the HDF-S dataset includes deep WFPC2 imaging, STIS UV-Visible imaging and spectroscopy, deep near-infrared imaging, and wider-area flanking field observations.

The simultaneous availability of deep imaging and a large spectroscopic coverage at medium-high resolution makes the HDF-S a unique field to study the relationship between galaxies and absorbers, the quasar environment, the abundance pattern of metal absorption systems.

Ground-based observations have been carried out at ESO with the VLT and NTT telescopes in the framework of the ESO HDF-South Project.


 

STIS Image

CTIO Big Throughput Camera wide-field image. We have observed a region 40X40 arcminutes centered on the HDF-S Quasar in UBVRI and a narrow-band filter centered on the Ly-alpha at z=2.25. Results were presented at the January 1999 AAS meeting in Austin TX, and the January 2000 AAS meeting in Atlanta GA. See below for a list of refereed papers and AAS abstracts.

Our field in BVR:
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Refereed Papers:
The Hubble Deep Field - South: STIS Imaging
    J. P. Gardner, et al. 2000, AJ, 119, 486.

Wide Field Imaging of the Hubble Deep Field - South. I: Quasar Candidates
    P. Palunas, et al. 2000, ApJ.

High-Resolution Spectroscopy of the HDF-S QSO J2233-606 at the ESO VLT

* Fig. 1 spectrum of the quasar J2233-606 (VLT Kueyen Telescope)  

The Observations

High-resolution spectroscopy (R ~ 45000) of the QSO J2233-606 has been carried out with the VLT UV-Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES), during the commissioning of the instrument in October 1999.

Fig.1-2: a small part of the high-resolution spectrum of the 17.5 magnitude quasar J2233-606 as obtained with UVES at VLT Kueyen.

The quasar J2233-606 has an emission redshift z=2.238 and is located in the Hubble Deep Field South, a region of the sky in which the Hubble Space Telescope has provided the deepest images ever taken.

* Fig. 2 spectrum of the quasar J2233-606 (VLT Kueyen Telescope)   The observations obtained with UVES will make it possible to study the connection between the galaxies observed in the field and the absorption lines in the spectrum of J2233-606 at unprecedented high redshift.

The complementary information from the ESO VLT and HST will provide insight into the physical processes governing the formation and evolution of primordial galaxies.

The observed wavelength have been corrected to vacuum heliocentric values.

* Fig. 3 metal absorptions around the QSO CIV emission peak   The spectra shown here are the sum of 5 exposures for a total of 16200 seconds.