MPE: View of the night sky with more than 250 eyes

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MPE: View of the night sky with more than 250 eyes

Post by bystander » Tue Jun 08, 2010 6:09 pm

View of the night sky with more than 250 eyes
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics - 08 June 2010
New observing instrument ready for installation

The VIRUS-W spectrograph of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and the University Observatory Munich was completed and is now ready for installation at the McDonald observatory in Texas. Its field of view, spectral coverage and resolution makes the instrument ideally suited to study star and gas motions in nearby spiral galaxies.

Images of astronomical objects are not only beautiful and impressive but also an important source of information for astronomers. In addition to imaging cameras, scientists also use instruments called spectrographs, which disperse light into its constituent colours. The spectra obtained in this fashion help to determine for example the chemical composition of stars and gas or their velocities.

The VIRUS-W spectrograph was specifically designed to observe nearby spiral galaxies. Its relatively large field of view combined with a high spectral resolution makes it ideally suited for this purpose. Operated in the high resolution mode, it will allow scientists to study the bulk motion of stars in spiral galaxies down to velocity dispersions of only about 20 km/s. The second, medium resolution mode was developed for studying the chemical composition of galaxies. The field of view of the spectrograph will be about 150x75 arcseconds, which means that the kinematically very interesting central regions of spiral galaxies can be studied in just one or two exposures. Depending on its apparent brightness and size on the sky, a galaxy can then be observed in just a few hours.
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The first observations with VIRUS-W at the Harlan J. Smith telescope in West Texas are planned for the end of June. Apart from studies of spiral galaxies by the scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and the University Observatory, other research groups can then apply for using the instrument as well.

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