HETDEX Public Data Release 1: Source Catalog 2 and Data Cubes from ∼90 deg 2 of Integral-field Optical Spectroscopy

Journal article

The Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) is a wide-field, integral-field spectroscopic survey designed to map the large-scale distribution of Lyα-emitting galaxies (LAEs) at 1.88 < z < 3.52 and constrain dark energy at cosmic noon. Using the 10 m Hobby–Eberly Telescope and the Visible Integral-Field Replicable Unit (IFU) Spectrograph, HETDEX obtains >35,000 spectra per exposure over 3500–5500 Å at R ∼ 800 with ∼1.″8 image quality, enabling an untargeted census of emission-line galaxies across 540 deg2. We present HETDEX Public Data Release 1 (PDR1), comprising 431,713 IFU observations covering 86.67 deg2 of noncontiguous sky in the Spring (13h, +51°) and Fall (1 .h 5, 0°) fields, along with legacy regions (Cosmic Evolution Survey, Great Observations Origins Deep Survey North, North Ecliptic Pole, SA22). PDR1 includes the HETDEX Public Source Catalog 2 (HPSC2), an expanded and reprocessed version of E. Mentuch Cooper et al. (2023) incorporating four additional years of data, improved quality control, and new machine learning classifiers. HPSC2 contains 426,654 LAEs, 491,411 [O II] emitters, 19,457 low-z galaxies, 18,303 active galactic nuclei, and 150,608 stars, providing coordinates, redshifts or stellar velocities, and 1D spectra for each source. Because the data cubes use local sky subtraction optimized for faint emission-line detection, they are not suited for absolute surface-brightness measurements or very extended nearby galaxies. Appendix materials include the full detection catalog, the 1.6 million–candidate LAE sample, and raw detection databases. All products are publicly accessible through the HETDEX data portal (https://hetdex.org/data-results/), including access to a public JupyterLab. HPSC2 is also publicly available via Zenodo (doi:10.5281/zenodo.19581262).

Authors: Mentuch Cooper, E; Gebhardt, K; Davis, D; Liu, C; Castanheira, BG

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Astronomical Society
• Journal: The Astrophysical Journal: Supplement Series
• Volume: 284
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 67
• Article number: 67
• Publication date: 2026-06-03
• Acceptance date: 2026-04-11
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4365/ae6068
• EISSN: 1538-4365
• ISSN: 0067-0049
• Language: English
• Keywords: Galaxy spectroscopy; Lyman-alpha galaxies; Redshift surveys; Astronomy databases; Emission line galaxies; Catalogs