The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) is designed to document the first third of galactic evolution, over the approximate redshift (z) range 8-1.5. It will image >250,000 distant galaxies using three separate cameras on the Hubble Space Telescope, from the mid-ultraviolet to the near-infrared, and will find and measure Type Ia supernovae at z > 1.5 to test their accuracy as standardizable candles for cosmology. Five premier multi-wavelength sky regions are selected, each with extensive ancillary data. The use of five widely separated fields mitigates cosmic variance and yields statistically robust and complete samples of galaxies down to a stellar mass of 10 9 M to z ≈ 2, reaching the knee of the ultraviolet luminosity function of galaxies to z ≈ 8. The survey covers approximately 800 arcmin 2 and is divided into two parts. The CANDELS/Deep survey (5σ point-source limit H = 27.7 mag) covers ∼125 arcmin 2 within Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS)-N and GOODS-S. The CANDELS/Wide survey includes GOODS and three additional fields (Extended Groth Strip, COSMOS, and Ultra-deep Survey) and covers the full area to a 5σ pointsource limit of H 27.0 mag. Together with the Hubble Ultra Deep Fields, the strategy creates a three-tiered "wedding-cake" approach that has proven efficient for extragalactic surveys. Data from the survey are nonproprietary and are useful for a wide variety of science investigations. In this paper, we describe the basic motivations for the survey, the CANDELS team science goals and the resulting observational requirements, the field selection and geometry, and the observing design. The Hubble data processing and products are described in a companion paper.

This paper describes the Hubble Space Telescope imaging data products and data reduction procedures for the Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS). This survey is designed to document the evolution of galaxies and black holes at z ∼ 1.5 − 8, and to study Type Ia SNe beyond z > 1.5. Five premier multi-wavelength sky regions are selected, each with extensive multiwavelength observations. The primary CANDELS data consist of imaging obtained in the Wide Field Camera 3 / infrared channel (WFC3/IR) and UVIS channel, along with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The CANDELS/Deep survey covers ∼ 125 square arcminutes within GOODS-N and GOODS-S, while the remainder consists of the CANDELS/Wide survey, achieving a total of ∼ 800 square arcminutes across GOODS and three additional fields (EGS, COSMOS, and UDS). We summarize the observational aspects of the survey as motivated by the scientific goals and present a detailed description of the data reduction procedures and products from the survey. Our data reduction methods utilize the most up to date calibration files and image combination procedures. We have paid special attention to correcting a range of instrumental effects, including CTE degradation for ACS, removal of electronic bias-striping present in ACS data after SM4, and persistence effects and other artifacts in WFC3/IR. For each field, we release mosaics for individual epochs and eventual mosaics containing data from all epochs combined, to facilitate photometric variability studies and the deepest possible photometry. A more detailed overview of the science goals and observational design of the survey are presented in a companion paper.

Directly detecting thermal emission from young extrasolar planets allows measurement of their atmospheric compositions and luminosities, which are influenced by their formation mechanisms. Using the Gemini Planet Imager, we discovered a planet orbiting the ~20-million-year-old star 51 Eridani at a projected separation of 13 astronomical units. Near-infrared observations show a spectrum with strong methane and water-vapor absorption. Modeling of the spectra and photometry yields a luminosity (normalized by the luminosity of the Sun) of 1.6 to 4.0 × 10(-6) and an effective temperature of 600 to 750 kelvin. For this age and luminosity, "hot-start" formation models indicate a mass twice that of Jupiter. This planet also has a sufficiently low luminosity to be consistent with the "cold-start" core-accretion process that may have formed Jupiter.

We present a statistical analysis of the first 300 stars observed by the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey. This subsample includes six detected planets and three brown dwarfs; from these detections and our contrast curves we infer the underlying distributions of substellar companions with respect to their mass, semimajor axis, and host

HR 8799 is currently the only multiple-planet system that has been detected with direct imaging, with four giant planets of masses 7 − 10 M Jup orbiting at large separations (15-68 AU) from this young late A star. Orbital motion provides insight into the stability, and possible formation mechanisms of this planetary system. Dynamical studies can also provide constraints on the planets' masses, which help calibrate evolutionary models. Yet, measuring the orbital motion is a very difficult task because the long-period orbits (50-500 yr) require long time baselines and high-precision astrometry. This paper studies the three planets HR 8799b, c and d in the archival data set of HR 8799 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) NICMOS coronagraph in 1998. The detection of all three planets is made possible by a careful optimization of the LOCI algorithm, and we used a statistical analysis of a large number of reduced images. This work confirms previous astrometry for planet b, and presents new detections and astrometry for c and d. These HST images provide a ten-year baseline with the discovery images from 2008, and therefore offer a unique opportunity to constrain their orbital motion now. Recent dynamical studies of this system show the existence of a few possible stable solutions involving mean motion resonances, where the interaction between c and d plays a major role. We study the compatibility of a few of these stable scenarios (1d:1c, 1d:2c, or 1d:2c:4d) with the new astrometric data from HST. In the hypothesis of a 1d:2c:4b mean motion resonance our best orbit fit is close to the stable solution previously identified for a three-planet system, and involves low eccentricity for planet d (e d = 0.10) and moderate inclination of the system (i = 28.0 deg), assuming a coplanar system, circular orbits for b and c, and exact resonance with integer period ratios. Under these assumptions, we can place strong constraints on the inclination of the system (27.3 − 31.4 deg) and on the eccentricity for d e d < 0.46. Our results are robust to small departures from exact integer period ratios, and consistent with previously published results based on dynamical studies for a three-planet system prior to the discovery of the fourth planet.