The ASTRODEEP Frontier Fields catalogues

Abstract

Aims. We present the multiwavelength photometry of two Frontier Fields massive galaxy clusters, MACS-J0717 and MACS-J1149, and their parallel fields, ranging from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to ground-based K and Spitzer IRAC bands, and the public release of photometric redshifts and rest-frame properties of galaxies found in cluster and parallel pointings. This work was carried out within the ASTRODEEP project and aims to provide a reference for future investigations of extragalactic populations. Methods. To fully exploit the depth of the images and detect faint sources, we used an accurate procedure, which carefully removes the foreground light of bright cluster sources and the intra-cluster light thus enabling detection and measurement of accurate fluxes in crowded cluster regions. This same procedure has been successfully used to derive the photometric catalogue of MACS-J0416 and Abell-2744. Results. The obtained multiband photometry was used to derive photometric redshifts, magnification, and physical properties of sources. In line with the first two FF catalogues released by ASTRODEEP, the photometric redshifts reach ~4% accuracy. Moreover we extend the presently available samples to galaxies intrinsically as faint as H160 ~ 32–34 mag thanks to the magnification factors induced by strong gravitational lensing. Our analysis allows us to probe galaxy masses larger than 107 M⊙ and/or SFR = 0.1–1 M⊙/yr out to redshift z> 6.