Extremely Large Telescope

Abstract:

We present H and K band imaging spectroscopy of the core regions of the cD/AGN galaxy NGC1275. The spectra, including lines from H2, H, 12CO bandheads, [FeII], and [FeIII], are exploited to constrain the star formation and excitation mechanisms in the galaxy's nucleus. The near-infrared properties can largely be accounted for by ionized gas in the NLR, dense molecular gas, and hot dust concentrated near the active nucleus of NGC1275. The strong and compact H2 emission is mostly from circumnuclear gas excited by the AGN and not from the cooling flow. The extended emission of latetype stars is diluted in the center by the thermal emission of hot dust.

Abstract:

One of the most important techniques for astrophysics with adaptive optics is the ability to do spectroscopy at diffraction limited scales. The extreme difficulty of positioning a faint target accurately on a very narrow slit can be avoided by using an integral field unit, which provides the added benefit of full spatial coverage. During 1998, working with ALFA and the 3D integral field spectrometer, we demonstrated the validity of this technique by extracting and distinguishing spectra from binary stars separated by only 0.26 inch. The combination of ALFA & 3D is also ideally suited to imaging distant galaxies or the nuclei of nearby ones, as its field of view can be changed between 1.2 inches×1.2 inches and 4 inches×4 inches, depending on the pixel scale chosen. In this contribution we present new results both on galactic targets, namely young stellar objects, as well as extra-galactic objects including a Seyfert and a starburst nucleus.

Abstract:

LUCIFER (LBT NIR-Spectroscopic Utility with Camera and Integral-Field Unit for Extragalactic Research) is a full cryogenic NIR spectrograph and imager (λ 0.9μ - 2.5μ, zJHK-bands) to be built by a consortium of five institutes (Landessternwarte Heidelberg (LSW), Max Planck Institut fuer Astronomie in Heidelberg (MPIA), Max Planck Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) in Garching, Astronomisches Institut der Ruhr Universitaet Bochum (AIRUB) and Fachhochschule fuer Technik und Gestaltung (FHTG) in Mannheim). The instrument has been selected as one of three first-light instruments for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham, Arizona which first mirror becomes available to the community in early 2003. The second mirror and a second more or less identical spectrograph/imager follows 18 month later. Both LUCIFER instruments will be mounted at the bent Gregorian foci of the two individual LBT-mirrors and include six observing modes: seeing and diffraction limited imaging, seeing and diffraction limited longslit spectroscopy, seeing limited multi-object spectroscopy (MOS) and integral-field spectroscopy (IFU). The detector will be a Rockwell HAWAII-2 HgCdTe-array with a pixel-size of 18μ.

Abstract:

SINFONI, the SINgle Faint Object Near-infrared Investigation, is an instrument for the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which will start its operation mid 2002 and allow for the first time near infrared (NIR) integral field spectroscopy at the diffraction limit of an 8-m telescope. SINFONI is the combination of two state-of-the art instruments, the integral field spectrometer SPIFFI, built by the Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), and the adaptive optics (AO) system MACAO, built by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It will allow a unique type of observations by delivering simultaneously high spatial resolution (pixel sizes 0".025 to 0".25) and a moderate spectral resolution (R similar to 2000 to R similar to 4500), where the higher spectral resolution mode will allow for software OH suppression. This opens new prospects for astronomy.