Phase 3 Release of Ultra-Deep Ks-band Imaging Data of Hubble Frontier Fields

Published: 08 Jun 2016
HST ACS + WFC3 image of Abell 2744 cluster core

This release provides reduced Ks-band mosaics of the Hubble Frontier Fields obtained with HAWK-I at VLT UT4. The first two fields, Abell 2744 and MACS-0416, were observed with HAWK-I in Period 92 and the second two fields, Abell S1063 and Abell 370, in Period 95 (PI: Gabriel Brammer).

The quality of the final mosaics is quite uniform between all of the surveys fields, reaching point source limiting magnitudes of Ks~26.0 (AB mag, 5σ) with superb image quality, FWHM ~ 0.4 arcseconds for point sources. This data release also includes two northern Frontier Fields clusters, MACS-0717 and MACS-1149, which were observed with the Keck/MOSFIRE instrument. The total sky area covered in the Ks-band is 490 square arcminutes.

The data are now available via the Phase 3 query form and are accompanied by a comprehensive release description.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz, M. Mountain, A. Koekemoer, and the HFF Team (STScI).