Spitzer Space Telescope - General Observer Proposal #41011


MIPS 24 um Snapshot Survey of Massive Galaxy Clusters

Principal Investigator: Eiichi Egami
           Institution: University of Arizona

     Technical Contact: Eiichi Egami, University of Arizona

Co-Investigators: 
Graham Smith, University of Birmingham                                
Jean-Paul Kneib, OAMP, Marseille                                      
Daniel Schaerer, Geneva Observatory                                   
Roser Pello, Obs-MIP, France                                          
Johan Richard, Caltech                                                
Dario Fadda, IPAC/Caltech                                             
Frederic Boone, Obs-PM, France                                        

Science Category: high-z galaxies (z>0.5) 
 Observing Modes: MipsPhot 
  Hours Approved: 22.3 

Abstract:
Gravitatinoal lensing by massive clusters of galaxies offers a very powerful and
yet cheap means to improve the sensitivity of a given telescope/instrument
combination. The use of gravitational lensing is especially powerful in the
infrared wavelengths because cluster cores are dominated by early-type galaxies,
which usually emit very little in the infrared. Therefore, infrared sources
detected in cluster cores are almost always background sources. Here, we propose
to conduct a MIPS 24 $\\mu$m snapshot survey of massive galaxy clusters with the
goal of more of such stongly-lensed high-redshift galaxies. We will also study
infrared-luminous brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs). This survey should be able
to supply many interesting targets to follow up with SCUBA2, Herschel, and ALMA.