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Science with MUSE
Global aims
MUSE has been conceived as a revolutionary tool to
discover faint emission from young galaxies in the
high-redshift universe. It combines the discovery potential
of an imaging device with the capabilities of a
high-efficiency spectrograph, while also taking advantage of
the increased spatial resolution provided by adaptive
optics. With MUSE it will be possible to conduct the
spectroscopic equivalent of the famous "Hubble Deep Fields".
But MUSE will also be an outstanding instrument for studying
many other types of astronomical objects.
Design drivers
- Allow for very long integrations (up to ~ 100h coadded):
- Gravity-invariant system
- very few moving parts; in particular: fixed spectral format
- Search for ultra-faint emission-line galaxies (Ly-alpha) up to z ~ 6.7:
- Red-sensitive up to 930 nm
- Good spectral resolution to see between night sky emission lines: R ~ 2000 (at 465nm) to 4000 (at 930 nm)
- implied blue cutoff at 465 nm
- High throughput, state-of-the-art coatings
- Benefit from Adaptive Optics:
- Wide Field Mode: Ground Layer AO (seeing improvement)
- Narrow Field Mode: High order AO at red visible wavelengths
Instrument characteristics and sensitivity
Science cases
- Star-forming galaxies at z > 3
- Progenitors of present-day galaxies like the Milky-Way
- Evidence for galaxy growth by smooth accretion
- Outflows and enrichment
- Galaxy evolution at intermediate redshifts
- Evolution of cosmic star formation rate
- Kinematics of disc galaxies
- Galaxies in clusters and compact groups
- High-resolution studies of nearby galaxies
- Galaxy nuclei and supermassive black holes
- Dynamics, abundances, star formation histories
- Spectroscopic studies of resolved stellar populations
- Galactic objects
- Compact star clusters
- Gas nebulae and star forming regions
- Discs and outflows around young stars
- Solar system bodies
- Planets and their moons
- Coments
More about science enabled with MUSE can be found at the
official
homepage of the MUSE project.
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