First Results from the SPICES Survey

We present first results from SPICES, the Spectroscopic, Photometric, Infrared-Chosen Extragalactic Survey. SPICES is comprised of four ≈ 30 arcmin high Galactic latitude fields with deep BRIzJKs imaging reaching depths of ≈ 25 mag (AB) in the optical and ≈ 23 mag (AB) in the near-infrared. To date we have 626 spectroscopic redshifts for infrared-selected SPICES sources with Ks < 20 (Vega). The project is poised to address galaxy formation and evolution to redshift z ≈ 2. We discuss initial results from the survey, including the surface density of extremely red objects and the fraction of infrared sources at z > 1. One of the SPICES fields has been the target of a deep 190 ksec Chandra exposure; we discuss initial results from analysis of that data set. Finally, we briefly discuss a successful campaign to identify high-redshift sources in the SPICES fields.