Early Results from the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph
Abstract
We present examples of early science results achieved with the newly commissioned Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini North 8-m Telescope. GMOS provides long- and multi-slit spectroscopy and imaging over a 5.5 arcmin field of view, and these three modes were successfully commissioned during the second half of 2001. GMOS was built by a collaboration between the UK (Astronomical Technology Centre at ROE and University of Durham) and Canada (HIA). As part of System Verification (SV) we have executed several imaging, long-slit, and multi-object spectroscopic programs designed to test and demonstrate the scientific capabilities of GMOS. Two of these programs, for which we present the imaging and preliminary MOS results, target the fields around RXJ0142.0+2131 and UM224. The first program is aimed at investigating galaxy evolution through observations of a rich cluster at intermediate redshift (z=0.28) and measuring stellar populations and dynamics of the member galaxies. The goal of the second program is to measure redshifts of galaxies in the field of a high redshift QSO (z=2.08) with intervening metal-line absorption in order to identify which galaxies may be responsible for the absorption and investigate their group/clustering properties. All data obtained as part of SV will become public within a few months. We are currently in the final stages of SV observations including full commissioning of the IFU, and have begun obtaining data for the community as of November 2001. The Gemini Observatory is operated by AURA, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: NSF (United States), PPARC (United Kingdom), NRC (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), ARC (Australia), CNPq (Brazil) and CONICET (Argentina).
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001AAS...19916010R