Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
DEEP is a multi-institutional program designed to undertake a major new spectroscopic survey of faint field galaxies with the Keck II 10-m telescope. The scientific goals are broad and include exploring galaxy formation and evolution, mapping the large scale structure at moderate to high redshifts, and constraining the nature and distribution of dark matter and cosmology. Besides the primary goal of securing large numbers of redshifts (10, 000+) to very faint limits of I ~ 23, DEEP intends to acquire spectra of high enough quality and spectral resolution to extract rotation curves, velocity dispersions, age estimates, and chemical abundances for a brighter subset of galaxies. A new imaging spectrograph for Keck called DEIMOS has been specifically designed to achieve these goals and is currently scheduled for completion by the end of 1998. DEIMOS will provide anoverall gain for multi-object spectroscopy of about 7x compared to the current low-resolution spectrograph (LRIS). While awaiting for DEIMOS to be operational, the interim DEEP science programs have been diverse, but largely concentrated on spectroscopy of faint galaxies observed with HST, especially in the “Groth Strip” and Hubble Deep Field (HDF) and its flanking fields. Recent highlights include redshift and kinematic studies of compact galaxies, high redshift (z ~ 3) galaxies, and distantspirals.