Giant Magellan Telescope Integral-Field Spectrograph (GMTIFS)

An international consortium of research and technology organisations is working together to design and build the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), which will be the world's largest and most powerful telescope when it is completed in 2024. ANU is leading Australia's involvement in the GMT and will deliver a back-end spectrograph and adaptive-optics solutions for the project.

Building on its experience and expertise in optical and infrared imaging and spectroscopic instrumentation, the RSAA is designing and building one of the first instruments for the telescope, the GMT Integral-Field Spectrograph (GMTIFS). This instrument will be one of three that are developed with the telescope and available on the telescope when it is completed and sees 'first light'. GMTIFS is a near-infrared imager and integral-field spectrograph, meaning that it will not only have the ability to take detailed images of the sky, but also obtain spectra from across a continuous region of the field of view.

As an early step in the development process, ANU organized the meeting 'Science with the Giant Magellan Telescope Integral-Field Spectrograph' at the Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA, USA on 12-13 March 2013.

The goals of the meeting were:

  • to inform the US and international communities about the proposed capabilities of GMTIFS and the GMT NGSAO and LTAO systems.
  • to ensure that GMTIFS serves the needs of the GMT community by articulating a broad range of science drivers for the instrument.
  • to ensure that GMTIFS meets those needs by developing 'telescope proposals' for these key science drivers that capture both scientific and technical requirements.

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