Mid-infrared astronomy with the E-ELT: performance of METIS

S. Kendrew; L. Jolissaint; B. Brandl; R. Lenzen; E. Pantin; A. Glasse; J. Blommaert; L. Venema; R. Siebenmorgen; F. Molster

doi:10.1117/12.857043

20 July 2010 Mid-infrared astronomy with the E-ELT: performance of METIS

S. Kendrew, L. Jolissaint, B. Brandl, R. Lenzen, E. Pantin, A. Glasse, J. Blommaert, L. Venema, R. Siebenmorgen, F. Molster

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7735, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III; 77355F (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.857043
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We present results of performance modelling for METIS, the Mid-infrared European Extremely Large Telescope Imager and Spectrograph. Designed by a consortium of NOVA (Netherlands), UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK), MPIA Heidelberg (Germany), CEA Saclay (France) and KU Leuven (Belgium), METIS will cover the atmospheric windows in L, M and N-band and will offer imaging, medium-resolution slit spectroscopy (R~1000- 3000) and high-resolution integral field spectroscopy (R~100,000). Our model uses a detailed set of input parameters for site characteristics and atmospheric profiles, optical design, thermal background and the most up-to-date IR detector specifications. We show that METIS will bring an orders-of-magnitude level improvement in sensitivity and resolution over current ground-based IR facilities, bringing mid-IR sensitivities to the micro- Jansky regime. As the only proposed E-ELT instrument to cover this entire spectral region, and the only mid-IR high-resolution integral field unit planned on the ground or in space, METIS will open up a huge discovery space in IR astronomy in the next decade.

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S. Kendrew, L. Jolissaint, B. Brandl, R. Lenzen, E. Pantin, A. Glasse, J. Blommaert, L. Venema, R. Siebenmorgen, and F. Molster "Mid-infrared astronomy with the E-ELT: performance of METIS", Proc. SPIE 7735, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III, 77355F (20 July 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.857043

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