This Special Issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters is dedicated to presenting initial results from the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) that are primarily, but not exclusively, based on multi-band imaging data obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The survey covers roughly 320 square arcminutes in the ACS F435W, F606W, F814W, and F850LP bands, divided into two well-studied fields. Existing deep observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) and groundbased facilities are supplemented with new, deep imaging in the optical and

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We present a first analysis of deep 24 m observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope of a sample of nearly 1500 galaxies in a thin redshift slice, 0:65 z < 0:75. We combine the infrared data with redshifts, rest-frame luminosities, and colors from COMBO-17 and with morphologies from Hubble Space Telescope images collected by the Galaxy Evolution from Morphology and SEDs (GEMS) and Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) projects. To characterize the decline in star formation rate (SFR) since z $ 0:7, we estimate the total thermal IR luminosities, SFRs, and stellar masses for the galaxies in this sample. At z $ 0:7, nearly 40% of intermediate-and high-mass galaxies (with stellar masses !2 ; 10 10 M ) are undergoing a period of intense star formation above their past-averaged SFR. In contrast, less than 1% of equally massive galaxies in the local universe have similarly intense star formation activity. Morphologically undisturbed galaxies dominate the total infrared luminosity density and SFR density: at z $ 0:7, more than half of the intensely star-forming galaxies have spiral morphologies, whereas less than $30% are strongly interacting. Thus, a decline in major merger rate is not the underlying cause of the rapid decline in cosmic SFR since z $ 0:7. Physical properties that do not strongly affect galaxy morphology-for example, gas consumption and weak interactions with small satellite galaxies-appear to be responsible.

We present results from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CAN-DELS) photometric redshift methods investigation. In this investigation, the results from eleven participants, each using a different combination of photometric redshift code, template spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and priors, are used to examine the properties of photometric redshifts applied to deep fields with broad-band multi-wavelength coverage. The photometry used includes U -band through mid-infrared filters and was derived using the TFIT method. Comparing the results, we find that there is no particular code or set of template SEDs that results in significantly better photometric redshifts compared to others. However, we find codes producing the lowest scatter and outlier fraction utilize a training sample to optimize photometric redshifts by adding zero-point offsets, template adjusting or adding extra smoothing errors. These results therefore stress the importance of the training procedure. We find a strong dependence of the photometric redshift accuracy on the signal-to-noise ratio of the photometry. On the other hand, we find a weak dependence of the photometric redshift scatter with redshift and galaxy color. We find that most photometric redshift codes quote redshift errors (e.g., 68% confidence intervals) that are too small compared to that expected from the spectroscopic control sample. We find that all codes show a statistically significant bias in the photometric redshifts. However, the bias is in all cases smaller than the scatter, the latter therefore dominates the errors. Finally, we find that combining results from multiple codes significantly decreases the photometric redshift scatter and outlier fraction. We discuss different ways of combining data to produce accurate photometric redshifts and error estimates. 1 2 Dahlen et al.

We analyze star formation (SF) as a function of stellar mass ( ) and redshift z in the All-Wavelength Extended M * Groth Strip International Survey, for star-forming field galaxies with out to . The data 10 M տ 10 M zp 1.1 * , indicate that the high specific SF rates (SFRs) of many less massive galaxies do not represent late, irregular or recurrent, starbursts in evolved galaxies. They rather seem to reflect the onset (initial burst) of the dominant SF episode of galaxies, after which SF gradually declines on gigayear timescales to and forms the bulk of a z p 0 galaxy's . With decreasing mass, this onset of major SF shifts to decreasing z for an increasing fraction of M * galaxies (staged galaxy formation). This process may be an important component of the "downsizing" phenomenon. We find that the predominantly gradual decline of SFRs described by Noeske et al. can be reproduced by exponential SF histories (t models), if less massive galaxies have systematically longer e-folding times t, and a later onset of SF . Our model can provide a first parameterization of SFR as a function of and z, and (z ) M f * quantify mass dependences of t and , from direct observations of and SFRs up to . The observed z M z 1 1 f * evolution of SF in galaxies can plausibly reflect the dominance of gradual gas exhaustion. The data are also consistent with the history of cosmological accretion onto dark matter halos.