WEAVE

WEAVE

William Herschel Telescope Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer

Progetto: Stellar Populations Survey – WEAVE-StePS

SHORT DESCRIPTION

WEAVE, inaugurated on 30 October 2023, is a powerful new-generation multi-fiber spectrograph installed on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, Canary Islands. Science programs in multi-object mode will start in late 2024.

Its characteristics (multiple observations, up to 900 objects simultaneously over 3 square degrees of sky in multi-object mode, spectral resolution, sensitivity) make it a world-leading instrument for wide-field spectroscopic observations for the next decade. It is a unique instrument in the Northern Hemisphere and the data we will obtain will lead to a significant step forward in our understanding of the Universe both local (our Galaxy) and more distant, with the aim of obtaining new information on the evolution of galaxies. In this respect, WEAVE will be complementary to large telescopes and space missions such as JWST and Euclid.

Over the next few years, 70% of the time available on the WHT will be allocated to the WEAVE Survey, a set of eight large surveys selected from those proposed by the astronomical communities of the partner countries.

The multilateral agreement for the design and construction of WEAVE was signed in 2016 by the ING (Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes) partnership countries – the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands – joined by France and Italy. The team that built the instrument is led by the University of Oxford, the University of Groningen and ING. INAF contributed to the development of some of WEAVE‘s main components, co-financing lenses, participating in the production of the spectrograph’s optics, and developing the data processing, analysis and archiving software.

ROLE OF THE OBSERVATORY

Among the large surveys signed by INAF that make up the WEAVE Survey there is the Stellar Populations Survey, WEAVE-StePS with our researchers Angela Iovino and Marcella Longhetti, the first Principal Investigator and member of the Survey Working Group, the second head of the Quality Assurance Group of the survey.

WEAVE-StePS will use the high efficiency of WEAVE in multi-object mode to observe as many as 25,000 galaxies. The spectra that WEAVE-StePS will obtain will be of such a quality that they will be able to accurately reconstruct the properties of each of the observed galaxies. We will be able to tell, for example, when they formed their constituent stars, how they were enriched in heavy elements, what their dynamical properties are, and much more. This information can be combined with that already available in the local Universe, allowing us to trace the evolution of galaxies seamlessly over a time interval that covers half the total age of the Universe.

OBSERVATORY STAFF INVOLVED

• Angela Iovino – PI, Survey Working Group component – angela.iovino AT inaf.it
• Marcella Longhetti – lead of the Quality Assurance Group – marcella.longhetti AT inaf.it
• Shuang Zhou – PostDoc  – shuang.zhoui AT inaf.it

TIMELINE

2010 –

WEBSITE

WEAVE

CONTACT

CREDITS

Web page content: A. Iovino.