The manifold spectra and morphologies of EROs

Deep VLT optical spectroscopy, HST+ACS (GOODS) imaging and VLA observations are used to unveil the nature of a complete sample of 47 EROs with R-K(s) > 5 and K(s) < 20. The spectroscopic redshift completeness is 62%. Morphological classification was derived for each ERO through visual inspection and surface brightness profile fitting. Three main ERO morphological types are found: E/S0 galaxies ( ~30-37%), spiral-like (~ 24-46%) and irregular systems (~ 17-39%). The only ERO detected in the radio is likely to host an obscured AGN. The average radio luminosity of the star-forming EROs undetected in the radio implies star formation rates of the order of ~33  … yr -1. The colors, redshifts and masses of the E/S0 galaxy subsample imply a minimum formation redshift Zf ~2. With this Zf there is enough time to have old and massive stellar spheroids already assembled at Z ~. We verify that the R-K(s)vs. J – Ks color diagram is efficient in segregating old and dusty-star-forming EROs.