RELICS: Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey

Understand

Large surveys of galaxy clusters with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, including CLASH and the Frontier Fields, have demonstrated the power of strong gravitational lensing to efficiently deliver large samples of high-redshift galaxies.

• We extend this strategy through a wider, shallower survey named RELICS, the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey.
• This survey, described here, was designed primarily to deliver the best and brightest high-redshift candidates from the first billion years after the Big Bang.
• RELICS observed 41 massive galaxy clusters with Hubble and Spitzer at 0.4-1.7um and 3.0-5.0um, respectively.