Dr. Anton M. Koekemoer - Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute

Hubble Space Telescope /
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)

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Professional Information

Welcome to Anton's homepage! I am a research astrophysicist with the Hubble Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute, and have held a position here since 1997. Previous experience and education:

Postdoctoral fellowship positions at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Leiden University, and the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
Ph.D. in astrophysics in 1995, from the Australian National University / Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (formerly Mount Stromlo Observatory), on the physics of black holes in active galaxies
B.Sc. (Honours) in physics in 1989, from the University of Adelaide

At the Space Telescope Science Institute, my work includes maintaining the scientific productivity of the Hubble Space Telescope, and for some years I was the team lead in charge of one of the imaging cameras onboard Hubble (the 'NICMOS' Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer). More recently I have also been working on the James Webb Space Telescope (the successor to Hubble, planned for launch in a few years), and I carry out astrophysics research programs on my areas of interest which include the formation of galaxies and black holes in the early universe and their growth over cosmic time.

Research Interests:

Formation of galaxies and black holes and their growth over cosmic time
Large surveys for distant galaxies and black holes in the early universe
Physical properties of active galaxies, including radio galaxies and quasars

I have also been in charge of the Hubble imaging work as part of my role in the following large projects:

2000: CDFS (Chandra Deep Field South)
2002: GOODS (Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey)
2003: UDF (Hubble Ultra Deep Field)
2004: COSMOS survey
2005: AEGIS (All-sky Extended Groth Strip International Survey)
2007: HLA (Hubble Legacy Archive)
2009: WFC3/ERS (Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 / Early Release Science)
2010: CANDELS (Cosmic Assembly and Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Survey)
2011: CLASH (Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble)
2012: UV UDF (Ultra-Violet Hubble Ultra Deep Field)
2012: UDF12 (Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012)
2013: Hubble Frontier Fields survey

Current research publications (1994 - 2013):

Full publication list directly available from NASA/ADS (640 research publications at last count)
(including about 100 first-author publications / conference proceedings, the rest being co-author publications)

Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012

I am in charge of the imaging for the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012 (UDF2012) project, where I led the observations and created all the final images.

The Press release presents the various images and other details about the program, after the public data release took place on 12 December 2012. This new image of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is the deepest ever image of the sky at these wavelengths. By combining new data obtained by the UDF12 Team (PI. R. Ellis) with previous data obtained by the UDF09 Team (PI.: G. illingworth) as well as other Hubble programs (The CANDELS team, PI.: S. Faber and H. Ferguson, and the Supernova team, PI.: A. Riess), these new data enable us to use Hubble to probe to deeper cosmic epochs than ever before.

Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2004

I was in charge of the imaging for the Hubble Space Telescope / Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS) 2004 Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) project, where my role was to calibrate, combine and analyse the 800 ACS/WFC exposures to produce a set of final, cleaned "drizzled" images in each of the four filters.

The Press release presents the various images and other details about the program, after the public data release took place on 9 March 2004.

Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 / Early Release Science (WFC3 / ERS)

I was part of the team for the new Early Release Science Program obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope / Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3), which was installed on Hubble by the Astronauts during Servicing Mission 4 in May 2009. This program uses the new Wide Field Camera 3 to obtain extensive new, deep near-infrared data on the GOODS-South Field (part of the "Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey" / "GOODS" project). The Press release presents the various images and other details about the program, after the public release took place on 5 January 2010.

The Hubble COSMOS Survey

I was also in charge of combining all the Hubble imaging data for the COSMOS project, which used 600 orbits of Hubble time to produce the largest single mosaic ever obtained with HST (about 2 square degrees, or about 10 times the area of the full moon, and covering about 2 million galaxies); my science interest in this project is to search for supermassive black holes in the very early universe.

"EXO's!" - Extreme X-ray / Optical sources

This is a new class of galaxies which I discovered in 2004, that are well detected in deep X-ray studies with the Chandra and XMM telescopes, but completely undetected at optical wavelengths in deep observations with Hubble and large ground-based telescopes (VLT, Gemini, Subaru, Keck etc). They are detected at infrared wavelengths, particularly with Spitzer in the 3 - 8 micron and 24 micron wavelength bands.

The Press release presents the various images and other details about the program, after the public release took place on 1 June 2004.

"MultiDrizzle!" - Software for Combining Hubble Imaging Data

I originally wrote and developed the MultiDrizzle software, which uses the "drizzle" software (Fruchter & Hook 2002) to perform automatic registration, cosmic ray rejection and combination of dithered HST images.

The original paper describing MultiDrizzle is:

A. M. Koekemoer, A. S. Fruchter, R. Hook, W. Hack, 2002 HST Calibration Workshop, 337

A few relevant publications:

"The COSMOS Survey: Hubble Space Telescope / Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS) Observations and Data Processing"
A. M. Koekemoer, Aussel, H., Calzetti, D., Capak, P., Giavalisco, M., Kneib, J.-P., Leauthaud, A., Le Fevre, O., McCracken, H. J., Massey, R., Mobasher, B., Rhodes, J., Scoville, N. & Shopbell, P. L.
2007, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0703095]
[Full-resolution version: 2007, ApJS 172, 196]
"The [OII]3727 Luminosity function and Star Formation Rate at z~1.2 in the COSMOS 2 Square-degree Field and the Subaru Deep Field"
M. I. Takahashi, Shioya, Y., Taniguchi, Y., Murayama, T., Ajiki, M., Sasaki, S. S., Koizumi, O., Nagao, T., Scoville, N. Z., Mobasher, B., Aussel, H., Capak, P., Carilli, C., Ellis, R. S., Garilli, B., Giavalisco, M., Guzzo, L., Hasinger, G., Impey, C., Kitzbichler, M. G., A. M. Koekemoer, Le Fevre, O., Lilly, S. J., Maccagni, D., Renzini, A., Rich, M., Sanders, D. B., Schinnerer, E., Scodeggio, M., Shopbell, P., Smolcic, V., Tribiano, S., Ideue, Y. & Mihara, S.
2007, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0703065]
"Dominant Nuclear Outflow Driving Mechanisms in Powerful Radio Galaxies"
D. Batcheldor, Tadhunter, C., Holt, J., Morganti, R., O'Dea, C. P., Axon, D. J. & A. M. Koekemoer,
2007, Astrophysical Journal, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0702498]
"Lyman Alpha Emitters at Redshift 5.7 in the COSMOS Field"
T. Murayama, Taniguchi, Y., Scoville, N. Z., Ajiki, M., Sanders, D. B., Mobasher, B., Aussel, H., Capak, P., A. M. Koekemoer, Shioya, Y., Nagao, T., Carilli, C., Ellis, R. S., Garilli, B., Giavalisco, M., Kitzbichler, M. G., LeFevre, O., Maccagni, D., Schinnerer, E., Smolcic, V., Tribiano, S., Cimatti, A., Komiyama, Y., Miyazaki, S., Sasaki, S. S., Koda, J. & Karoji, H.
2007, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0702458]
"Radio observations of the CDF-South: a possible link between radio emission and star formation in X-ray selected AGN"
E. Rovilos, Georgakakis, A., Georgantopoulos, I., Afonso, J., A. M. Koekemoer, Mobasher, B. & Goudis, C.
2007, Astronomy & Astrophysics, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0702424]
"Weak Gravitational Lensing with COSMOS: Galaxy Selection and Shape Measurements"
A. Leauthaud, Massey, R., Kneib, J. P., Rhodes, J., Johnston, D. E., Capak, P., Heymans, C., Ellis, R. S., A. M. Koekemoer, Le Fevre, O., Mellier, Y., Refregier, A., Robin, A. C., Scoville, N., Tasca, L., Taylor, J. E., Van Waerbeke, L.
2007, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0702359]
"The Stability of the Point Spread Function of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope and Implications for Weak Gravitational Lensing"
J. D. Rhodes, Massey, R., Albert, J., Collins, N., Ellis, R. S., Heymans, C., Gardner, J. P., Kneib, J.-P., A. M. Koekemoer, Leauthaud, A., Mellier, Y., Refregier, A., Taylor, J. E., Van Waerbeke, L.
2007, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0702140]
"Dark matter maps reveal cosmic scaffolding"
R. Massey, Rhodes, J., Ellis, R., Scoville, N., Leauthaud, A., Finoguenov, A., Capak, P., Bacon, D., Aussel, H., Kneib, J.-P., A. M. Koekemoer, McCracken, H., Mobasher, B., Pires, S., Refregier, A., Sasaki, S., Starck, J.-L., Taniguchi, Y., Taylor, A., Taylor, J.
2007, Nature, 445, 286
"Redshifts of Emission Line Objects in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field"
C. Xu, Pirzkal, N., Malhotra, S., Rhoads, J. E., Mobasher, B., Daddi, E., Gronwall, C., Hathi, N. P., Panagia, N., Ferguson, H. C., A. M. Koekemoer, Kuemmel, M., Moustakas, L. A., Pasquali, A., di Serego Alighieri, S., Vernet, J., Walsh, J. R., Windhorst, R., Yan, H.
2007, Astronomical Journal, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0701875]
"The redshift evolution of early-type galaxies in COSMOS: Do massive early-type galaxies form by dry mergers?"
C. Scarlata, Carollo, C. M., Lilly, S. J., Feldmann, R., Kampczyk, P., Renzini, A., Cimatti, A., Halliday, C., Daddi, E., Sargent, M. T., A. M. Koekemoer, Scoville, N., Kneib, J-P., Leauthaud, A., Massey, R., Rhodes, J., Tasca, L., Capak, McCracken, H. J., Mobasher, B., Taniguchi, Y., Thompson, D., Ajiki, M., Aussel, H., Murayama, T., Sanders, D. B., Sasaki, S., Shioya, Y., Takahashi, M.
2007, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0701746]
"The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS): The morphological content and enviromental dependence of the galaxy color-magnitude relation at z~0.7"
P. Cassata, Guzzo, L., Franceschini, A., Scoville, N., Capak, P., Ellis, R. S., A. M. Koekemoer, McCracken, H. J., Mobasher, B., Renzini, A., Ricciardelli, E., Scodeggio, M., Taniguchi, Y., Thompson, D.
2007, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0701483]
"The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS): a large-scale structure at z=0.73 and the relation of galaxy morphologies to local environment"
L. Guzzo, Cassata, P., Finoguenov, A., Massey, R., Scoville, N. Z., Capak, P., Ellis, R. S., Mobasher, B., Taniguchi, Y., Thompson, D., Ajiki, M., Aussel, H., Boehringer, H., Brusa, M., Calzetti, D., Comastri, A., Franceschini, A., Hasinger, G., Kasliwal, M. M., Kitzbichler, M. G., Kneib, J. -P., A. M. Koekemoer, Leauthaud, A., McCracken, H. J., Murayama, T., Nagao, T., Rhodes, J., Sanders, D. B., Sasaki, S., Shioya, Y., Tasca, L., Taylor, J. E.
2007, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0701482]
"COSMOS: 3D weak lensing and the growth of structure"
R. Massey, Rhodes, J., Leauthaud, A., Capak, P., Ellis, R., A. M. Koekemoer, Refregier, A., Scoville, N., Taylor, J. E., Albert, J., Berge, J., Heymans, C., Johnston, D., Kneib, J.-P., Mellier, Y., Mobasher, B., Semboloni, E., Shopbell, P., Tasca, L., Van Waerbeke, L.
2007, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0701480]
"Deep GALEX Imaging of the HST/COSMOS Field: A First Look at the Morphology of z~0.7 Star-forming Galaxies"
M. A. Zamojski, Schiminovich, D., Rich, R. M., Mobasher, B., A. M. Koekemoer, Capak, P., Taniguchi, Y., Sasaki, S. S., McCracken, H. J., Mellier, Y., Bertin, E., Aussel, H., Sanders, D. B., Le Fevre, O., Ilbert, O., Salvato, M., Thompson, D. J., Kartaltepe, J. S., Scoville, N., Barlow, T. A., Forster, K., Friedman, P. G., Martin, D. C., Morrisey, P., Neff, S. G., Seibert, M., Small, T., Wyder, T. K., Bianchi, L., Donas, J., Heckman, T. M., Lee, Y. -W., Madore, B. F., Milliard, B., Szalay, A. S., Welsh, B. Y., Yi, S. K.
2007, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0701478]
"The Spitzer Legacy Survey of the HST-ACS 2 sq. deg. COSMOS Field: survey strategy and first analysis"
D. B. Sanders, Salvato, M., Aussel, H., Ilbert, O., Scoville, N., Surace, J. A., Frayer, D. T., Sheth, K., Helou, G., Brooke, T., Bhattacharya, B., Yan, L., Kartaltepe, J., Barnes, J. E., Blain, A. W., Calzetti, D., Capak, P., Carilli, C., Carollo, C. M., Comastri, A., Daddi, E., Ellis, R. S., Elvis, M., Fall, M., Franceschini, A., Giavalisco, M., Hasinger, G., Impey, C., A. M. Koekemoer, Le Fevre, O., Lilly, S., Liu, M. C., McCracken, H. J., Mobasher, B., Renzini, A., Rich, M., Schinnerer, E., Shopbell, P. L., Taniguchi, Y., Thompson, D. J., Urry, C. M., Williams, J. P.
2007, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, accepted / in press
[Preprint: astro-ph/0701318]

Note:
Links to published refereed papers point directly to PDF files made available by the relevant journals: The Astrophysical Journal, The Astronomical Journal, as well as scanned Postscript files accessible via the NASA Astrophysics Data System.

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Old Homepage at MSSSO: http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~anton