Abstract
COSMOS is a scientific program designed for the GTC whose main goal is to characterize the galaxy population during the epoch of maximum star formation in the history of the Universe. According to recent studies, this critical epoch occurred when the Universe was 10-40% of its current age, which corresponds to redshifts 1 < z < 3. At these redshifts, the optical window--the region of the spectrum that has been most widely studied in nearby galaxies--is shifted into the near infrared (1-2.5 μ m). Major spectroscopic surveys down to 1.8 μ m are currently being planned to study the rest-frame optical properties of galaxies and the global star formation of the universe at redshifts up to 2. COSMOS will use EMIR on the GTC to become the first major survey to extend these studies to the high z Universe.
