Abstract:
An enduring question in galaxy evolution concerns how galaxies obtain cold gas--the fuel for ongoing star formation. To address this question, we present the COSMOS HI Large Extragalactic Survey (CHILES), a project currently underway on the Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The CHILES collaboration has been granted 1000 hours of B-array observing time to image neutral hydrogen (HI) in a 30’ x 30’ cone centered on the COSMOS field and covering a redshift range of z = 0 to z = 0.45. CHILES anticipates HI detection of ~ 300 galaxies through previously unprobed intermediate redshifts, with sensitivity and angular resolution similar to and thus useful for comparison with Square Kilometer Array pathfinder projects. We present here an overview of the survey and a preliminary look at ongoing science with the first 400 hours of data.