Meddelelse
ESO underskriver aftalen om at bygge MOONS
26. september 2014
MOONS instrumentet vil gøre det muligt at se de skjulte dele af vores Mælkevej, og nu er byggeaftalen på plads. ESO har truffet aftale med et konsortium under ledelse af Science and Technology Facilities Council's UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) om at bygge MOONS. Når det er færdigt skal det nye instrument monteres på ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT), og det skal i løbet af den forventede levetid på ti år observere i omegnen af ti millioner himmelobjekter. Det vil gøre os i stand til at angribe nogle af tidens største astronomiske udfordringer: hvordan er Mælkevejen opbygget, hvordan dannes stjerner og galakser, og hvordan udvikler de sig.
MOONS [1] betyder Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph. Instrumentet fanger lyset fra en masse objekter samtidigt, med op til 1.000 lysledende fibre, spredt over et stort synsfelt. Observationerne bliver gjort i både synligt lys og i det nærinfrarøde område. Kombinationen af VLT og MOONS gør det muligt at studere galaksernes dannelse og udvikling igennem det meste af Universets levetid. [2].
Ud over studier af det fjerne Univers, kan astronomerne kigge ind i de ellers skjulte dele af centralområdet i vores egen galakse, Mælkevejen. Brugen af VLT gør det muligt at observere stjerner i Mælkevejen i afstande på op til 40.000 lysår, så vi vil kunne se igennem både centralområdet og selve skiven. Dermed bliver det muligt at kortlægge vores galakses struktur i et tredimensionelt kort. [3].
Efter at ESO i 2010 indhentede forslag fra astronomerne til et vidvinkel spektrometer, blev to forslag udvalgt til nærmere studier i 2013. Det var MOONS og 4MOST (4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope). Begge forslag er nu i design og konstruktionsfasen, og det forventes, at MOONS kan tages i brug i 2018 og 4MOST i 2019.
MOONS vil også fungere som en vigtig opfølgning til ESAs Gaia mission, og også til andre jordbaserede optiske og nær-infrarøde oversigtsstudier (det drejer sig om VISTA, UKIDSS, VST, Pan-STARRS, Dark Energy Survey og LSST) og projekter, som opererer i andre bølgelængdeområder (ALMA, Herschel, eRosita, LOFAR, WISE, ASKAP). Dermed vil instrumentet udfylde et vigtigt hul i den astronomiske værktøjskasse, især med hensyn til det nær-infrarøde område.
MOONS kommer også til at spille en vigtig rolle i forbindelse med det nyigangsatte projekt ESA mission Euclid, fordi MOONS vil dække det samme bølgelængdeområde som rummissionen. Dermed kan det blandt andet hjælpe ved kalibreringen af rumsondens målinger. Desuden vil instrumentet supplere både igangværende og planlagte oversigtsprojekter, som for eksempel det nye, store Gaia–ESO public spectroscopic survey [4], hvor den optiske del af spektroskopien bliver gennemført af projekterne FLAMES og VIMOS.
Noter
[1] MOONSprojektet udføres af et konsortium under ledelse af Science and Technology Facilities Council -– UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; og andre medlemmer er CAAUL, Observatorio Astronomico de Lisboa, Portugal og Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics of University of Lisbon, Portugal; GEPI, Observatoire de Paris, France; Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) med centre i Firenze, Bologna, Milano and Rom, Italien; AIUC, Centre for Astro-Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago Chile; Cavendish Laboratory og Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom; ETH Zürich, Institute for Astronomy, Schweiz; University of Geneva, via dets Astronomical Observatory, Sauverny, Switzerland og endelig ESO.
[2] Det har i mange år været højt prioriteret at udvikle et vidvinklet spektrometer, som kan observere mange objekter på samme tid, og både i synligt lys og i nær-infrarødt, især beskrevet i ASTRONET, som er en udførlig langtidsplan for udviklingen af europæisk astronomi. Et sådant instrument har længe være et ønske for at kunne supplere eksisterende vidvinkelundersøgelser.
ASTRONET er sammensat af en gruppe europæiske bevilgende myndigheder med det formål at skabe et strategisk planlægningsværktøj for astronomien i Europa, og fra ASTRONET er der udgivet en udførlig oversigt over både de videnskabelige visioner, og hvordan man kommer i mål med dem
[3] Dette er svært fordi Jorden befinder sig inde i Mælkevejens skive. Det svarer lidt til at ville se skoven for bare trær.
[4] Gaia-ESO er ESOs spektroskopiske oversigtsprojekt. Det indeholder mere end 100.000 stjerner, som skal observeres i synligt lys med multifiberspektrografen FLAMES. Dette projekt omfatter alle de større bestanddele af Mælkevejen, fra dens halo til regioner med igangværende stjernedannelser.
Links
- MOONS: The Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph (Messenger artikel som PDF)
- Royal Observatory Edinburgh MOONS website
- Very Large Telescope array (VLT)
- Operating the Very Large Telescope (PDF brochure)
Kontakter
Ole J. Knudsen
ESON-Danmark
IDA, Aarhus Universitet
tlf. 8715 5419
e-mail: ESON-Denmark@eso.org
Om meddelelsen
| Id: | ann14072 |
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