IPAC Seminar: James Colbert -- WISP: Probing Low Mass Galaxy Evolution With Near-IR Grism Spectroscopy

The WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallels (WISP) program shows the power of slitless spectroscopy to probe galaxy evolution from 0.5<z<2.5. WISP is particularly sensitive to low-mass, metal-poor galaxies with extreme star formation rates. These are missed by conventional continuum-selected surveys. Using the broad, continuous, spectral coverage of the G102 and G141 grisms (0.8--1.7 um), we measure the H-alpha and OIII number counts and luminosity functions, identify extreme EW galaxies, probe the low mass end of the mass-metallicity and SFR-mass relations, characterize the evolution of dust extinction, and examine the assembly of the red sequence. WISP is also capable of finding distant low temperature brown dwarfs, close galaxy pairs, and possibly even high redshift Lyman alpha emitters. This gives us a window into what future proposed near-infrared space missions, Euclid and WFIRST, will be capable of measuring with slitless grism surveys covering orders of magnitude more area.