IMAGES: a unique view of the galaxy mass assembly since z=1

Abstract

The Large Program IMAGES is near 2/3 of its completion. It provides us with kinematics (GIRAFFE deployable IFUs), gas chemistry (FORS2), detailed morphologies (HST/ACS) and IR photometry (Spitzer) for a set of 70 galaxies representative of intermediate mass galaxies (MJ<=-20.3 or 1.5e10 Mo) at z=0.4-0.75. We discover that, 6 Gyr ago, a significant fraction of galaxies (>40%) had anomalous kinematics, i.e. kinematics significantly discrepant from those of rotational or dispersion supported galaxies. The anomalous kinematics cause the observed large dispersion of the Tully-Fisher relation at large distances. IMAGES will soon allow us to study distant galaxies at a level of detail almost comparable to that of nearby galaxies.