Extremely Large Telescope

Abstract:

We present SPIFFI, the integral field spectrometer for the VLT. This instrument allows simultaneous observation of infrared spectra in more than 1000 image points of a two dimensional field. With its set of four gratings and a pixel scale that can be varied by a factor of ten, SPIFFI provides high flexibility, and at the same time offers the unique possibility of diffraction limited imaging spectroscopy at an 8m-class telescope, when fed by the adaptive optics system MACAO. We outline the scientific drivers for building such an instrument, the concept of image slicing, the optical design, and the implementation of SPIFFI.

Abstract:

We present multi-wavelength imaging observations of three nearby and famous active galaxies obtained with of NICMOS, ISOCAM and the MPE near-In integral held spectrometer. The data reveal a variety of features and properties that are missed in optical studies and in traditional IR monodimensional spectroscopy.

Abstract:

The morphological features of the early-type disk galaxy NGC 4672 are discussed as well as the velocity curves and velocity dispersion profiles of stars and ionized gas along both its major and minor axes. We conclude that NGC 4672 has structural (i.e. a bulge elongated perpendicularly to the disk) and kinematical (i.e, a stellar core rotating perpendicularly to the disk) properties similar to those of the Sa NGC 4698. The presence of the isolated core suggests that the disk component is the end result of the acquisition of external material in polar orbits around a pre-existing oblate spheroid, as in the case of the ring component of AM 2020-504, the prototype of polar ring ellipticals.

Abstract:

LUCIFER (LBT NIR-Spectroscopic Utility with Camera and Integral-Field Unit for Extragalactic Research) is a full cryogenic NIR spectrograph and imager (lambda 0.9 mu - 2.5 mu, zJHK-bands) to be built by a consortium of five institutes (Landessternwarte Heidelberg (LSW), Max Planck Institut fur Astronomie in Heidelberg (MPIA), Max Planck Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) in Garching, Astronomisches Institut der Ruhr Universitat Bochum (AIRUB) and Fachhochschule fur 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 LET-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 18 mu.