Kick-off for a new era of precision astronomy
The MICADO instrument will be developed and built by a consortium of European institutes in collaboration with ESO. MICADO will be the first dedicated imaging camera for the giant telescope E-ELT. Credit: ESO/MICADO consortium
As the first dedicated camera for the E-ELT, MICADO will equip the giant telescope with a capability for diffraction-limited imaging at near-infrared wavelengths.
MICADO is the Multi-AO Imaging Camera for Deep Observations, which has been designed to work on the 39-m European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). This revolutionary telescope will be the largest optical/near-infrared telescope in the world, gathering about 15 times more light than the largest optical telescopes existing today.
The MICADO camera will provide the capability for diffraction-limited imaging at near-infrared wavelengths, taking the power of adaptive optics to the next level. To correct for distortions due to the Earth’s atmosphere, MICADO is optimized to make use of adaptive optics (AO): a simple single conjugate AO mode (SCAO) for correction of individual targets and a powerful multi-conjugate AO mode provided by the MAORY (Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics RelaY) instrument to obtain sharp images over a wide-field of view.
The key capabilities of MICADO are matched to the unique features of the new telescope, and will lead to dramatic discoveries of new or unexplored astrophysical phenomena. To name but a few: Its high sensitivity will allow it to detect the faintest stars and furthest galaxies. Its unprecedented spatial resolution will reveal structures in nebulae and galaxies in detail far beyond what is currently possible.
For instance, by resolving stellar populations in distant galaxies their star formation history and evolution can be studied. And with the superb astrometric precision achieved by MICADO, many astronomical objects will no longer be static – they will become dynamic. Measuring the tiny movements of stars will reveal the presence of otherwise hidden black holes in star clusters, and tracking the motions of star clusters will lead to new insights about how our Milky Way formed.
In addition, MICADO includes a special mode that will allow it to directly observe and characterize extrasolar planets, and another that enables it to take spectra of compact objects.
“It’s an incredibly exciting prospect, the measurements we’ll be able to make with our camera and this giant future telescope,” says Ric Davies, the Principal Investigator at MPE. “But this is also a very challenging project, and I am glad to have such a capable and enthusiastic team.”
The MICADO instrument will be developed and built by a consortium of European institutes in collaboration with ESO. All partners have a strong tradition of working together to design and build world-class optical and infrared instrumentation. The project is expected to last nearly 10 years from the beginning of the current design phase to the end of commissioning, with the first light of both the E-ELT and MICADO planned for 2024.
As the lead institute, MPE is responsible for the overall project management and system engineering, and represents the consortium towards ESO. In addition, the team at MPE takes the lead in the developing and constructing the MICADO cryostat and the cold optics.
The main contributions of MPIA to MICADO are the high-precision Instrument-De-Rotator and the Calibration Units. The De-Rotator compensates the rotation of the field of view caused by the rotation of the Earth during observations. The Calibration Units will support the detector calibration of both the imaging camera and the spectrograph. A particular challenge is the long-time calibration of astrometric imaging errors unavoidable for a wide- field instrument like MICADO.
“The combination of the never before achieved resolution and light collecting power of the 39m-E-ELT will allow us to unravel for the first time the transition area between the low-mass stellar black holes and their supermassive counterparts in the centers of galaxies,” says Jörg-Uwe Pott from MPIA, Instrument Scientist for the entire MICADO project, and adds: “We will win important insights into the innermost processes of active galaxies and the star- and galaxy formation in the early universe.”
ESO supports the development of the MICADO instrument as an associate consortium member. It is responsible for two key areas: development and procurement of the science detector systems and the design of the adaptive optics wave front sensing and guide camera system with its associated real-time computer. Both activities are carried by ESO for all E-ELT instrumentation projects. In addition ESO is responsible for and manages the crucial interface between the MICADO science instrument and the multi-conjugate adaptive optics instrument MAORY.
Notes:
The MICADO consortium comprises:
MPE: Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (Germany); PI: Ric Davies
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/index
MPIA: Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (Germany); Co-PI: Jörg-Uwe Pott
http://www.mpia.de
USM: Universitäts-Sternwarte München(Germany); Co-PI: Florian Lang-Bardl
http://www.usm.uni-muenchen.de/
IAG: Institute for Astrophysics of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Germany); Co-PI: Harald Nicklas
http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/203293.html
NOVA: Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (vertreten durch University of Groningen, University of Leiden, NOVA optical/infrared instrumentation group based at ASTRON in Dwingeloo) (Niederlande); Co-PI: Eline Tolstoy (at Univ. Groningen)
http://www.nova-astronomy.nl/
INAF-OAPD: National Institute for Astrophysics at the Observatory of Padova; Co-PI: Roberto Ragazzoni (at OAPD)
http://www.pd.astro.it/index.php/en/
CNRS/INSU: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers (für MICADO vertreten durch LESIA, GEPI und IPAG) (Frankreich); Co-PI: Yann Clenet (at LESIA)
http://www.lesia.obspm.fr/
A*: Eine österreichische Partnerschaft (für MICADO vertreten durch die Universität Wien, die Universität Innsbruck, die Universität Linz und RICAM Linz [Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften]); Co-PI: Joao Alves (Uni. Wien)
https://www.univie.ac.at/
(Original text including high resolution images:: Hannelore Hämmerle (MPE) and others, http://www.mpe.mpg.de/6460495/News_20151006 )
Contact:at MPIA:
Dr. Jörg-Uwe Pott (CO-I of MICADO)
Tel: (+49|0) 6221 528-202
E-Mail:jpott@mpia.de
Dr. Klaus Jäger (Scientific Coordinator)
Tel: (+49|0) 6221 528-379
E-Mail: jaeger@mpia.de
Contact at MPE:
Dr. Hannelore Hämmerle
(+49|0) 89 30000 3298
E-mail: pr@mpe.mpg.de
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