The science enabled by the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer
Abstract
With its unique wide-field, multi-object, and dedicated spectroscopic capabilities, the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) is a powerful facility to shed light on the faint Universe. Built around an upgrade of the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) to a 11.25-meter telescope with a dedicated ∼1.5 deg^2, 4,000-fiber wide-field spectrograph that covers the optical and near-infrared wavelengths at resolutions between 2,500 and 40,000, the MSE is the essential follow-up complement to the current and next generations of multi-wavelength imaging surveys, such as the LSST, Gaia, Euclid, eROSITA, SKA, and WFIRST, and is an ideal feeder facility for the extremely large telescopes that are currently being built (E-ELT, GMT, and TMT). The science enabled by the MSE is vast and would have an impact on almost all aspects of astronomy research.
- Publication:
-
SF2A-2017: Proceedings of the Annual meeting of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017sf2a.conf..405M
- Keywords:
-
- astronomical observatories;
- Maunakea;
- multi-object spectroscopy;
- survey;
- large telescope;
- CFHT