Today Signing of Agreement METIS Instrument for E-ELT

© NOVA Optical Infrared Instrumentation group at ASTRON

This morning, the European Southern Observatory ESO and the consortium of institutes for the design and construction of METIS, will sign the agreement for the construction at a ceremony at the Science Faculty Club of Leiden University in the Netherlands. The signing will be done by H.W. (Willem) te Beest, Vice-President Executive Board, Leiden University, on behalf of the consortium, and Tim de Zeeuw, ESO Director General, and in attendance of Bernhard Brandl, the Principal Investigator of METIS, as well as all co-Investigators and all project managers of partner institutes in the consortium.

METIS, the infrared camera and spectrograph for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), is one of the first-light instruments and led by NOVA - The Netherlands Research School for Astronomy. It will offer imaging and medium-resolution spectroscopy over a wavelength range from 3-19 microns, and high-resolution integral field spectroscopy over a wavelength range of 3-5.3 microns. METIS is the only E-ELT first light instrument to work at these longer mid-infrared wavelengths and complements the MICADO camera and HARMONI spectrograph.

The METIS instrument, in conjunction with the huge light collecting power and resolution of the E-ELT, will allow many advances in a wide range of astronomical topics. These include the study of proto-planetary discs and the formation of planets, detailed investigations of the properties of exoplanets and, closer to home, the formation and history of the Solar System. METIS will also probe the growth of supermassive black holes as well as study star-forming galaxies in the early Universe.

METIS will be the largest instrument ever built by NOVA, and it will take a decade for realization. At ASTRON, the NOVA Optical Infrared Instrumentation Division will build several core elements.