The ATLAS3D project - I. A volume-limited sample of 260 nearby early-type galaxies: science goals and selection criteria

The ATLAS 3D project is a multiwavelength survey combined with a theoretical modelling effort. The observations span from the radio to the millimetre and optical, and provide multicolour imaging, two-dimensional kinematics of the atomic (H I), molecular (CO) and ionized gas (H, [O III] and [N I]), together with the kinematics and population of the stars (H, Fe5015 and Mg b), for a carefully selected, volume-limited (1.16 10 5 Mpc 3 ) sample of 260 early-type (elliptical E and lenticular S0) galaxies (ETGs). The models include semi-analytic, N-body binary mergers and cosmological simulations of galaxy formation. Here we present the science goals for the project and introduce the galaxy sample and the selection…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• AP
  Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
• CI
  California Institute of Technology
• RS
  Royal Society
• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• M
  Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
• JP
  Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• SA
  Science and Technology Facilities Council

  Awards: PP/D005574/1, ST/I003673/1, PP/E003427/1, PP/D005574/1, ST/H002456/1, ST/H002456/1, PP/E001114/1, ST/F009186/1, ST/G004331/1, PP/E001114/1, ST/H504862/1, ST/F009186/1, PP/E001564/1, ST/H504862/1, PP/E001564/1