🔭 "The European Union Funds the Conceptual Study of the Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope"
On Nov. 4th, the contract was signed to fund the conceptual study of the Wide Field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST), which could become operational in Chile after 2040.
Funded by the European Union:
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101183153
🔭💫 The science white paper of the Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST) is out in the arXiv!
In the white paper of almost 200 pages we try to answer the question: what transformational #science can we do in 10-15 years from now with a 12 metre telescope fully dedicated to multi-object #spectroscopy?
See:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.05398
SAGA Team members is co-leading the working group responsible for the exoplanet, stellar, and Galactic science case.
The Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST) is proposed as a new facility dedicated to the efficient delivery of spectroscopic surveys. This white paper summarises the initial concept as well as the corresponding science cases. WST will feature simultaneous operation of a large field-of-view (3 sq. degree), a high multiplex (20,000) multi-object spectrograph (MOS) and a giant 3x3 sq. arcmin integral field spectrograph (IFS). In scientific capability these requirements place WST far ahead of existing and planned facilities. 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 synergistically with future ground and space-based facilities. This white paper shows that WST can address outstanding scientific questions in the areas of cosmology; galaxy assembly, evolution, and enrichment, including our own Milky Way; origin of stars and planets; time domain and multi-messenger astrophysics. WST's uniquely rich dataset will deliver unforeseen discoveries in many of these areas. The WST Science Team (already including more than 500 scientists worldwide) is open to the all astronomical community. To register in the WST Science Team please visit https://www.wstelescope.com/for-scientists/participate
SagaTeam