The Canada-France Redshift Survey
A Hubble Space Telescope image of CFRS 14.0393, an Sc galaxy at redshift z = 0.602
This galaxy, similar in many respects to our own, is being observed when the Universe was only one half of its present age. The image shows the central red bulge of old stars and the spiral arms delineated by blue regions of active star-formation.
The Canada-France Redshift Survey (CFRS) is a collaboration between
astronomers in Canada and France:
Simon Lilly (University
of Toronto),
Olivier Le Fèvre, Francois Hammer (Observatoire de
Paris-Meudon), David Crampton (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory,
Victoria), Laurence Tresse (Cambridge University), David Schade, Dan
Hudon (University of Toronto).
The survey is based
primarily on observations with the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
(CFHT) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
The CFRS consists of spectra of over 1000 faint objects selected to
have 17.5 < I(AB) < 22.5 in five regions of sky. The survey is
providing the first systematic study of normal galaxies at redshifts z
> 0.5, corresponding to look-back times of greater than 50% of the age
of the Universe. Observations of CFRS galaxies have also been made
with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the survey forms
also the basis of studies with a number of other ground-based and
space facilities. We have written a layperson's guide to the CFRS and the main scientific results
that are emerging from it.
Publications and the electronic catalogue
A series of refereed main-journal papers and conference papers have
been written presenting the CFRS data and developing the
scientific interpretation of the survey.
Luminosity Functions of the CFRS per HST morphological type (LT)
The classsification of the CFRS galaxies into three HST eyeball morphological types is described
in Brinchmann et al.,1998,ApJ,499,112. [Old Cosmology, i.e. (0.5,1,0)].
(see also astro-ph/9902209)
Laurence Tresse, updated in 2005