Lessons from the GOODS

The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) is a multi-facility project that combines data from NASA's Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer space telescopes with spectroscopy and ancillary optical and near-IR imaging from the ground (VLT, Keck, Gemini, Subaru, NOAO) to provide a database for studying galaxy and AGN evolution up to redshifts z similar to 6.5 and higher. The survey covers similar to 0.1 deg(2) in two fields, one in each celestial hemisphere, centered around the historical Hubble Deep Field (HDF) and Chandra Deep Field (CDF). The Spitzer and the Hubble images, which nears the depth of the HDF, are matched in sensitivity to sample the spectral energy distribution of even very blue sources with comparable signal-to-noise ratios. The GOODS combination of depth, angular resolution, wavelength and area coverage is currently unparalleled by other extragalactic surveys, and here we review some areas in the field of galaxy evolution where GOODS had brought (or will soon bring) significant progress and where it will need further work. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.