SDSS-IV MaNGA IFS Galaxy Survey --- Survey Design, Execution, and Initial Data Quality

Understand

The MaNGA Survey (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) is one of three core programs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV.

• It is obtaining integral field spectroscopy (IFS) for 10K nearby galaxies at a spectral resolution of R~2000 from 3,622-10,354A.
• The design of the survey is driven by a set of science requirements on the precision of estimates of the following properties: star formation rate surface density, gas metallicity, stellar population age, metallicity, and abundance ratio, and their gradients; stellar and gas kinematics; and enclosed gravitational mass as a function of radius.
• We describe how these science requirements set the depth of the observations and dictate sample selection.