Overview

CATS (Center for Adaptive Optics Treasury Survey) is a coordinated program to observe thousands of galaxies with adaptive optics in the deepest fields covered by the Great Space Observatories (HST, CHANDRA and SIRTF). The ultimate goals include:

  1. Observe progressive assembly of galaxies from smaller subunits to larger ones like our own Milky Way
  2. Measure rates of star formation and evolution in stellar populations
  3. Identify central active galactic nuclei (AGN) and examine their interactions with their host galaxies

CATS will disseminate an archive of forefront AO data and associated reduction and analysis tools as a community resource to explore some of the grandest and most profound problems in cosmology.

Near infrared adaptive optics observations are conducted at W.M Keck Observatory and Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.