The Astropy Project supports and fosters the development of open-source and openly developed Python packages that provide commonly needed functionality to the astronomical community. A key element of the Astropy Project is the core package astropy, which serves as the foundation for more specialized projects and packages. In this article, we provide an overview of the organization of the Astropy project and summarize key features in the core package, as of the recent major release, version 2.0. We then describe the project infrastructure designed to facilitate and support development for a broader ecosystem of interoperable packages. We conclude with a future outlook of planned new features and directions for the broader Astropy Project.

Context. The Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) is an optical wide-field imaging survey carried out with the VLT Survey Telescope and the OmegaCAM camera. KiDS will image 1500 square degrees in four filters (ugri), and together with its near-infrared counterpart VIKING will produce deep photometry in nine bands. Designed for weak lensing shape and photometric redshift measurements, its core science driver is mapping the large-scale matter distribution in the Universe back to a redshift of ∼0.5. Secondary science cases include galaxy evolution, Milky Way structure, and the detection of high-redshift clusters and quasars. Aims. KiDS is an ESO Public Survey and dedicated to serving the astronomical community with high-quality data products derived from the survey data. Public data releases, the first two of which are presented here, are crucial for enabling independent confirmation of the survey's scientific value. The achieved data quality and initial scientific utilization are reviewed in order to validate the survey data. Methods. A dedicated pipeline and data management system based on A-WISE, combined with newly developed masking and source classification tools, is used for the production of the data products described here. Science projects based on these data products and preliminary results are outlined. Results. For 148 survey tiles (≈160 sq.deg.) stacked ugri images have been released, accompanied by weight maps, masks, source lists, and a multi-band source catalogue. Limiting magnitudes are typically 24.3, 25.1, 24.9, 23.8 (5σ in a 2 aperture) in ugri, respectively, and the typical r-band PSF size is less than 0.7 . The photometry prior to global homogenization is stable at the ∼2% (4%) level in gri (u) with some outliers due to non-photometric conditions, while the astrometry shows a typical 2D rms of 0.03 . Early scientific results include the detection of nine high-z QSOs, fifteen candidate strong gravitational lenses, high-quality photometric redshifts and structural parameters for hundreds of thousands of galaxies.

We present the curation and verification of a new combined optical and near infrared dataset for cosmology and astrophysics, derived from the combination of ugri-band imaging from the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) and ZYJHK s -band imaging from the VISTA Kilo degree Infrared Galaxy (VIKING) survey. This dataset is unrivaled in cosmological imaging surveys due to its combination of area (458 deg 2 before masking), depth (r ≤ 25), and wavelength coverage (ugriZYJHK s ). The combination of survey depth, area, and (most importantly) wavelength coverage allows significant reductions in systematic uncertainties (i.e. reductions of between 10 and 60% in bias, outlier rate, and scatter) in photometric-to-spectroscopic redshift comparisons, compared to the optical-only case at photo-z above 0.7. The complementarity between our optical and NIR surveys means that over 80% of our sources, across all photo-z, have significant detections (i.e. not upper limits) in our 8 reddest bands. We derive photometry, photo-z, and stellar masses for all sources in the survey, and verify these data products against existing spectroscopic galaxy samples. We demonstrate the fidelity of our higher-level data products by constructing the survey stellar mass functions in 8 volume-complete redshift bins. We find that these photometrically derived mass functions provide excellent agreement with previous mass evolution studies derived using spectroscopic surveys. The primary data products presented in this paper are publicly available at http://kids.strw.leidenuniv.nl/.

Context. The Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) is an ongoing optical wide-field imaging survey with the OmegaCAM camera at the VLT Survey Telescope. It aims to image 1500 square degrees in four filters (ugri). The core science driver is mapping the large-scale matter distribution in the Universe, using weak lensing shear and photometric redshift measurements. Further science cases include galaxy evolution, Milky Way structure, detection of high-redshift clusters, and finding rare sources such as strong lenses and quasars. Aims. Here we present the third public data release and several associated data products, adding further area, homogenized photometric calibration, photometric redshifts and weak lensing shear measurements to the first two releases. Methods. A dedicated pipeline embedded in the Astro-WISE information system is used for the production of the main release. Modifications with respect to earlier releases are described in detail. Photometric redshifts have been derived using both Bayesian template fitting, and machine-learning techniques. For the weak lensing measurements, optimized procedures based on the THELI data reduction and lensfit shear measurement packages are used. Results. In this third data release an additional 292 new survey tiles (≈300 deg 2 ) stacked ugri images are made available, accompanied by weight maps, masks, and source lists. The multi-band catalogue, including homogenized photometry and photometric redshifts, covers the combined DR1, DR2 and DR3 footprint of 440 survey tiles (44 deg 2 ). Limiting magnitudes are typically 24.3, 25.1, 24.9, 23.8 (5σ in a 2 aperture) in ugri, respectively, and the typical r-band PSF size is less than 0.7 . The photometric homogenization scheme ensures accurate colours and an absolute calibration stable to ≈2% for gri and ≈3% in u. Separately released for the combined area of all KiDS releases to date are a weak lensing shear catalogue and photometric redshifts based on two different machine-learning techniques.

Verlinde (2016) proposed that the observed excess gravity in galaxies and clusters is the consequence of Emergent Gravity (EG). In this theory the standard gravitational laws are modified on galactic and larger scales due to the displacement of dark energy by baryonic matter. EG gives an estimate of the excess gravity (described as an apparent dark matter density) in terms of the baryonic mass distribution and the Hubble parameter. In this work we present the first test of EG using weak gravitational lensing, within the regime of validity of the current model. Although there is no direct description of lensing and cosmology in EG yet, we can make a reasonable estimate of the expected lensing signal of low redshift galaxies by assuming a background ΛCDM cosmology. We measure the (apparent) average surface mass density profiles of 33, 613 isolated central galaxies, and compare them to those predicted by EG based on the galaxies' baryonic masses. To this end we employ the ∼ 180 deg 2 overlap of the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) with the spectroscopic Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey. We find that the prediction from EG, despite requiring no free parameters, is in good agreement with the observed galaxy-galaxy lensing profiles in four different stellar mass bins. Although this performance is remarkable, this study is only a first step. Further advancements on both the theoretical framework and observational tests of EG are needed before it can be considered a fully developed and solidly tested theory.