MAVIS on the VLT: A Powerful, Synergistic ELT Complement in the Visible
François Rigaut
(1)
,
Richard Mcdermid
(2)
,
Giovanni Cresci
(3)
,
Guido Agapito
(3)
,
Matteo Aliverti
(3)
,
Simone Antoniucci
(3)
,
Andrea Balestra
(3)
,
Andrea Baruffolo
(3)
,
Olivier Beltramo-Martin
(4)
,
Maria Bergomi
(3)
,
Andrea Bianco
(3)
,
Marco Bonaglia
(3)
,
Giuseppe Bono
(3, 5)
,
Jean-Claude Bouret
(4)
,
David Brodrick
(1)
,
Lorenzo Busoni
(3)
,
Giulio Capasso
(3)
,
Elena Carolo
(3)
,
Simonetta Chinellato
(3)
,
Mirko Colapietro
(3)
,
Robert Content
(2)
,
Jesse Cranney
(1)
,
Gayandhi de Silva
(2)
,
Sergio d'Orsi
(3)
,
Simon Ellis
(2)
,
Daniela Fantinel
(3)
,
Thierry Fusco
(6, 4)
,
Antony Galla
(1)
,
Gaston Gausachs
(1)
,
Damien Gratadour
(1)
,
Davide Greggio
(3)
,
Marco Gullieuszik
(3)
,
Pierre Haguenauer
(7)
,
Dionne Haynes
(1)
,
Nick Herrald
(1)
,
Anthony Horton
(2)
,
Devika Kamath
(2)
,
Laura Magrini
(3)
,
Antonino Marasco
(3)
,
Luca Marafatto
(3)
,
Davide Massari
(3)
,
Helen Mcgregor
(2)
,
Trevor Mendel
(1)
,
Stephanie Monty
(1)
,
Benoit Neichel
(4)
,
Enrico Pinna
(3)
,
Cédric Plantet
(3)
,
Elisa Portaluri
(3)
,
David Robertson
(2)
,
Bernardo Salasnich
(3)
,
Salvatore Savarese
(3)
,
Pietro Schipani
(3)
,
Christian Schwab
(2)
,
Scott Smedley
(2)
,
Rosanna Sordo
(3)
,
Stefan Ströbele
(7)
,
Annino Vaccarella
(1)
,
Daniele Vassallo
(3)
,
Valentina Viotto
(3)
,
Lew Waller
(2)
,
Alessio Zanutta
(3)
,
Hao Zhang
(1)
,
Ulf Seemann
(7)
,
Harald Kuntschner
(7)
,
Robin Arsenault
(7)
1
ANU -
Australian National University
2 Macquarie University [Sydney]
3 INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
4 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
5 Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata [Roma, Italia] = University of Rome Tor Vergata [Rome, Italy] = Université de Rome Tor Vergata [Rome, Italie]
6 DOTA, ONERA, Université Paris Saclay [Châtillon]
7 ESO - European Southern Observatory
2 Macquarie University [Sydney]
3 INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
4 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
5 Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata [Roma, Italia] = University of Rome Tor Vergata [Rome, Italy] = Université de Rome Tor Vergata [Rome, Italie]
6 DOTA, ONERA, Université Paris Saclay [Châtillon]
7 ESO - European Southern Observatory
Richard Mcdermid
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 783741
- ORCID : 0000-0002-8175-7229
- IdRef : 163522790
Andrea Baruffolo
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 756671
- ORCID : 0000-0002-1114-4355
Daniela Fantinel
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 756673
- ORCID : 0000-0001-8152-9480
Thierry Fusco
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1160943
- IdHAL : thierry-fusco
- ORCID : 0000-0002-0795-0856
- IdRef : 05777658X
Damien Gratadour
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 1308516
- IdHAL : dgratadour
- ORCID : 0000-0003-2080-7189
- IdRef : 119639130
Antonino Marasco
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 795027
- ORCID : 0000-0002-5655-6054
David Robertson
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 764907
- ORCID : 0000-0001-6338-0221
Résumé
On 1 June 2021 ESO and a consortium of Australian, Italian and French institutions signed an agreement for the design and construction of the MCAO Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph (MAVIS). This Very Large Telescope (VLT) instrument will push the frontier of new astronomical instrument technologies to provide, for the first time, wide-field, diffraction-limited angular resolution at visible wavelengths. In combination with the VLT Adaptive Optics Facility, it will use multi- conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) to feed a 4k × 4k imager covering 30 × 30 arcseconds, as well as an Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS). Angular resolution down to 18 milliarcseconds will be achieved at a wavelength of 550 nm (V band). The IFS will provide four spectral modes, with spectral resolutions from 4000 to over 15000 between 370 and 950 nm. This will enable a wide variety of science cases, spanning themes that include the emergence of the Hubble sequence, resolving the contents of nearby galaxies, star clusters over cosmic time and the birth, life, and death of stars and their planets. Delivering visible images and integral- field spectroscopy at an angular resolution two to three times better than that of the Hubble Space Telescope will make MAVIS a powerful complement at visible wavelengths to future facilities like the James Webb Space Telescope and the 30–40-metre-class ground-based telescopes currently under construction, which are all optimised for science at infrared wavelengths.