The MaNGA Survey
MaNGA is one of the 3 main surveys currently being carried out with the Sloan telescope at Apache Point Observatory. While previous incarnations of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have proved extremely successful in shedding new light on the processes driving galaxy evolution, they were limited by the fact that a single spectroscopic fibre was allocated to each target galaxy. This means that SDSS spectroscopy only covers galactic central regions, or other areas of high surface brightness, and is not actually representative of the galaxy as a whole.
Instrument and Sample Selection
To overcome this limitation the MaNGA team has developed a new instrumental suite for the Sloan telescope, consisting of hexagonal fibre bundles (Integral Field Units) of different sizes. A dithering pattern on sky allows the MaNGA bundles to fully sample the target galaxy. A careful sample selection combined with the availability of IFUs of different sizes allows MaNGA to observe nearby galaxies (<z> = 0.03) to at least 1.5 effective (half-light) radii. No cuts are made on color, morphology or environment, so the sample is fully representative of the local galaxy population. MaNGA makes use of the SDSS-BOSS spectrographs, which offer a wide, continuous wavelength range (3700 Å - 10000 Å) and medium spectral resolution (70 km/s).
MaNGA Science Goals
The availability of resolved optical spectroscopy for a statistically representative sample of nearby galaxies will allow detailed studies of the 'life cycle' of galaxies. In particular, the MaNGA Key Science Questions are:
1. How are galaxy disks growing at the present day, and what is the source of the gas supplying this growth?
2. What are the relative roles of stellar accretion, major mergers, and secular evolution processes in contributing to the present-day growth of galactic bulges and ellipticals?
3. How is the shutdown of star formation regulated by internal processes within galaxies and externally driven processes that may depend on environment?
4. How is mass and angular momentum distributed among different components, and how has their assembly affected the components through time?
MaNGA Quick References
Technical Papers
Overview of the SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey: Mapping nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory, Bundy et al., 2015, ApJ, 798, 24.
The MaNGA Integral Field Unit Fiber Feed System for the Sloan 2.5 m Telescope, Drory et al., 2015, AJ, 149, 77.
Science Papers from Prototype MaNGA Observations
P-MaNGA Galaxies: emission-lines properties - gas ionization and chemical abundances from prototype observations, Belfiore et al., 2015, MNRAS, 449, 867.
P-MaNGA: full spectral fitting and stellar population maps from prototype observations, Wilkinson et al., 2015, MNRAS, 449, 328.
P-MaNGA: Gradients in Recent Star Formation Histories as Diagnostics for Galaxy Growth and Death, Li et al., 2015, arXiv:1502.07040.
MaNGA People
Principal Investigator: Kevin Bundy (Kavli IPMU)
Chief Engineer/Project Manager: Nick MacDonald (Washington)
Survey Scientist: Renbin Yan (Kentucky)
Instrument Scientist: Niv Drory (UT Austin)
Lead Data Scientist: David Law (Dunlap Institute, Toronto)
Sample Design Lead: David Wake (Open University, Wisconsin)
Lead Observer: Anne-Marie Weijmans (St Andrews)
Science Team Chair: Daniel Thomas (Portsmouth)
Composition Strategic Committee: Alfonso Aragon-Salamanca (Nottingham), Roberto Maiolino (Cambridge), Cheng Li (SHAO), Christy Tremonti (Wisconsin)
Kinematics Strategic Committee: Karen Masters (Portsmouth), Remco van den Bosch (MPIA), Mike Merrifield (Nottingham), Eric Emsellem (ESO)
Early Career Scientists Representatives: Francesco Belfiore (Cambridge), Dominika Wylezalek (JHU)