The ELT-MOS (MOSAIC): towards the construction phase
astro-ph.IM
/ Authors
Simon Morris, François Hammer, Pascal Jagourel, Christopher J. Evans, Mathieu Puech, Gavin B. Dalton, Myriam Rodrigues, Ruben Sanchez-Janssen, Ewan Fitzsimons, Beatriz Barbuy
and 43 more authors
Jean-Gabriel Cuby, Lex Kaper, Martin Roth, Gérard Rousset, Richard Myers, Olivier Le Fèvre, Alexis Finogenov, Jari Kotilainen, Bruno Castilho, Goran Ostlin, Sofia Feltzing, Andreas Korn, Jesus Gallego, África Castillo Morales, Jorge Iglesias-Páramo, Laura Pentericci, Bodo Ziegler, Jose Afonso, Marc Dubbledam, Madeline Close, Phil Parr-Burman, Timothy J. Morris,
/ Abstract
When combined with the huge collecting area of the ELT, MOSAIC will be the most effective and flexible Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS) facility in the world, having both a high multiplex and a multi-Integral Field Unit (Multi-IFU) capability. It will be the fastest way to spectroscopically follow-up the faintest sources, probing the reionisation epoch, as well as evaluating the evolution of the dwarf mass function over most of the age of the Universe. MOSAIC will be world-leading in generating an inventory of both the dark matter (from realistic rotation curves with MOAO fed NIR IFUs) and the cool to warm-hot gas phases in z=3.5 galactic haloes (with visible wavelenth IFUs). Galactic archaeology and the first massive black holes are additional targets for which MOSAIC will also be revolutionary. MOAO and accurate sky subtraction with fibres have now been demonstrated on sky, removing all low Technical Readiness Level (TRL) items from the instrument. A prompt implementation of MOSAIC is feasible, and indeed could increase the robustness and reduce risk on the ELT, since it does not require diffraction limited adaptive optics performance. Science programmes and survey strategies are currently being investigated by the Consortium, which is also hoping to welcome a few new partners in the next two years.