WST -- Widefield Spectroscopic Telescope: Motivation, science drivers and top-level requirements for a new dedicated facility
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| Natura: | Preprint |
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2024
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| author | Bacon, Roland Maineiri, Vincenzo Randich, Sofia Cimatti, Andrea Kneib, Jean-Paul Brinchmann, Jarle Ellis, Richard Tolstoi, Eline Smiljanic, Rodolfo Hill, Vanessa Anderson, Richard Saez, Paula Sanchez Opitom, Cyrielle Bryson, Ian Dierickx, Philippe Garilli, Bianca Gonzalez, Oscar de Jong, Roelof Lee, David Mieske, Steffen Otarola, Angel Schipani, Pietro Travouillon, Tony Vernet, Joel Bryant, Julia Casali, Marc Colless, Matthew Couch, Warrick Driver, Simon Fontana, Adriano Lehnert, Matthew Magrini, Laura Montet, Ben Pasquini, Luca Roth, Martin Sanchez-Janssen, Ruben Steinmetz, Matthias Tresse, Laurence Yeche, Christophe Ziegler, Bodo |
| author_facet | Bacon, Roland Maineiri, Vincenzo Randich, Sofia Cimatti, Andrea Kneib, Jean-Paul Brinchmann, Jarle Ellis, Richard Tolstoi, Eline Smiljanic, Rodolfo Hill, Vanessa Anderson, Richard Saez, Paula Sanchez Opitom, Cyrielle Bryson, Ian Dierickx, Philippe Garilli, Bianca Gonzalez, Oscar de Jong, Roelof Lee, David Mieske, Steffen Otarola, Angel Schipani, Pietro Travouillon, Tony Vernet, Joel Bryant, Julia Casali, Marc Colless, Matthew Couch, Warrick Driver, Simon Fontana, Adriano Lehnert, Matthew Magrini, Laura Montet, Ben Pasquini, Luca Roth, Martin Sanchez-Janssen, Ruben Steinmetz, Matthias Tresse, Laurence Yeche, Christophe Ziegler, Bodo |
| contents | In this paper, we describe the wide-field spectroscopic survey telescope (WST) project. WST is a 12-metre wide-field spectroscopic survey telescope with simultaneous operation of a large field-of-view (3 sq. degree), high-multiplex (20,000) multi-object spectrograph (MOS), with both a low and high-resolution modes, and a giant 3x3 arcmin2 integral field spectrograph (IFS). In scientific capability, these specifications place WST far ahead of existing and planned facilities. In only 5 years of operation, the MOS would target 250 million galaxies and 25 million stars at low spectral resolution, plus 2 million stars at high resolution. Without need for pre-imaged targets, the IFS would deliver 4 billion spectra offering many serendipitous discoveries. Given the current investment in deep imaging surveys and noting the diagnostic power of spectroscopy, WST will fill a crucial gap in astronomical capability and work in synergy with future ground and space-based facilities. We show how it can address outstanding scientific questions in the areas of cosmology; galaxy assembly, evolution, and enrichment, including our own Milky Way; the origin of stars and planets; and time domain and multi-messenger astrophysics. WST's uniquely rich dataset may yield unforeseen discoveries in many of these areas. The telescope and instruments are designed as an integrated system and will mostly use existing technology, with the aim to minimise the carbon footprint and environmental impact. We will propose WST as the next European Southern Observatory (ESO) project after completion of the 39-metre ELT. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_12518 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | WST -- Widefield Spectroscopic Telescope: Motivation, science drivers and top-level requirements for a new dedicated facility Bacon, Roland Maineiri, Vincenzo Randich, Sofia Cimatti, Andrea Kneib, Jean-Paul Brinchmann, Jarle Ellis, Richard Tolstoi, Eline Smiljanic, Rodolfo Hill, Vanessa Anderson, Richard Saez, Paula Sanchez Opitom, Cyrielle Bryson, Ian Dierickx, Philippe Garilli, Bianca Gonzalez, Oscar de Jong, Roelof Lee, David Mieske, Steffen Otarola, Angel Schipani, Pietro Travouillon, Tony Vernet, Joel Bryant, Julia Casali, Marc Colless, Matthew Couch, Warrick Driver, Simon Fontana, Adriano Lehnert, Matthew Magrini, Laura Montet, Ben Pasquini, Luca Roth, Martin Sanchez-Janssen, Ruben Steinmetz, Matthias Tresse, Laurence Yeche, Christophe Ziegler, Bodo Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies Solar and Stellar Astrophysics In this paper, we describe the wide-field spectroscopic survey telescope (WST) project. WST is a 12-metre wide-field spectroscopic survey telescope with simultaneous operation of a large field-of-view (3 sq. degree), high-multiplex (20,000) multi-object spectrograph (MOS), with both a low and high-resolution modes, and a giant 3x3 arcmin2 integral field spectrograph (IFS). In scientific capability, these specifications place WST far ahead of existing and planned facilities. In only 5 years of operation, the MOS would target 250 million galaxies and 25 million stars at low spectral resolution, plus 2 million stars at high resolution. Without need for pre-imaged targets, the IFS would deliver 4 billion spectra offering many serendipitous discoveries. Given the current investment in deep imaging surveys and noting the diagnostic power of spectroscopy, WST will fill a crucial gap in astronomical capability and work in synergy with future ground and space-based facilities. We show how it can address outstanding scientific questions in the areas of cosmology; galaxy assembly, evolution, and enrichment, including our own Milky Way; the origin of stars and planets; and time domain and multi-messenger astrophysics. WST's uniquely rich dataset may yield unforeseen discoveries in many of these areas. The telescope and instruments are designed as an integrated system and will mostly use existing technology, with the aim to minimise the carbon footprint and environmental impact. We will propose WST as the next European Southern Observatory (ESO) project after completion of the 39-metre ELT. |
| title | WST -- Widefield Spectroscopic Telescope: Motivation, science drivers and top-level requirements for a new dedicated facility |
| topic | Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies Solar and Stellar Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.12518 |