EAGLE Spectroscopy of Resolved Stellar Populations Beyond the Local Group

astro-ph.IM

/ Authors

Chris Evans, Yanbin Yang, Mathieu Puech, Matthew Lehnert, Michael Barker, Annette Ferguson, Jean-Gabriel Cuby, Simon Morris, Gerard Rousset, Francois Assemat

and 1 more author

Hector Flores

/ Abstract

Valuable insights into galaxy evolution can be gleaned from studies of resolved stellar populations in the local Universe. Deep photometric surveys have provided tracers of the star-formation histories in galaxies from 0.8-16 Mpc, but without robust chemical abundances and stellar kinematics from spectroscopy, their sub-structures and assembly histories remain hidden from us. In this context, we introduce the EAGLE design study for a multi--integral-field-unit, near-infrared spectrograph for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). EAGLE will exploit the unprecedented light-gathering power of the E-ELT to deliver AO-corrected spectroscopy across a large (38.5 sq. arcmin) field, truly revolutionising our view of stellar populations in the Local Volume.