The Messenger
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Recent progress on the E-ELT The Messenger New image catalogue of planetary nebulae Massive star spectroscopy with X-shooter Renewable energy plans for Paranal No. 148 – June 2012 June – 148 No. Telescopes and Instrumentation Recent Progress Towards the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) Alistair McPherson1 cepted by the ESO Council and aw aits adopted by the ESO Council as the base- Roberto Gilmozzi1 the decision on the start of construction. line for the new 39-metre E-ELT. Jason Spyromilio1 Markus Kissler-Patig1 Suzanne Ramsay1 The European Extremely Large Telescope Science capabilities (E-ELT) design has evolved significantly since the last report in The Messenger A primary concern with respect to the 1 ESO (Spyromilio et al., 2008) and here we aim new baseline for the telescope was to update the community on the activities its impact on the scientific capabilities. within the E-ELT Project Office during The E-ELT Science Office, together ESO contributors to this work include: the past few years. The construction pro- with the Science Working Group studied Jose Antonio Abad, Luigi Andolfato, Robin Arsenault, posal prepared for the ESO Council the impact on the science of the various Joana Ascenso, Pablo Barriga, Bertrand Bauvir, Henri Bonnet, Martin Brinkmann, Enzo Brunetto, has been widely publicised and is availa- modifications to the baseline design 1 3 Mark Casali, Marc Cayrel, Gianluca Chiozzi, Richard ble on the ESO website . using the Design Reference Mission and Clare, Fernando Comerón, Laura Comendador Design Reference Science Cases4 as Frutos, Ralf Conzelmann, Bernard Delabre, Alain In the second half of 2010, the E-ELT benchmarks for the evaluation. Delorme, Canio Dichirico, Philippe Dierickx, Martin Dimmler, Mark Downing, Toomas Erm, Michael programme underwent a series of techni- Esselborn, Robert Frahm, Christoph Frank, Enrico cal and managerial reviews that pro- The diameter of the primary mirror is Fedrigo, Giorgio Filippi, Peet Fourie, Fernando Gago, vided a strong endorsement of the con- the most fundamental and most impor- Paolo Ghiretti, Frederic Gonte, Juan-Carlos struction project. The activities under- tant characteristic of any telescope Gonzales, Serge Guniat, Carlos Guirao, Stephane Guisard, Juan-Pablo Haddad, Wolfgang Hacken- taken during the phase B (2007–2010) system, but particularly for an adaptive berg, Volker Heinz, Renate Hinterschuster, Ronald were thoroughly reviewed by a board of optics assisted telescope, as it deter- Holzlöhner, Richard Hook, Norbert Hubin, Lisselotte external experts in September 2010 mines both its diffraction-limited spatial Jochum, Andreas Jost, Noé Kains, Dimitrios (see Kissler-Patig, 2010). The executive resolution as well as its photon-collecting Kalaitzoglou, Robert Karban, Markus Kasper, Hans- Ulrich Käufl, Lothar Kern, Mario Kiekebusch, Franz summary of the board report has been power. These properties may combine 2 Koch, Bertrand Koehler, Johann Kolb, Nick Korn- available for some time . The short differently depending on the scientific weibel, Maximilian Kraus, Paolo La Penna, Miska version is that “it [was] the unanimous goal, as well as the observational and LeLouarn, Samuel Lévêque, Stefan Lewis, Jochen conclusion of the review board that the astrophysical circumstances. The result Liske, Jean-Louis Lizon, Gianluca Lombardi, Antonio Longinotti, Fernando Luco, Christian Lucuix, Pierre- technical maturity of the design of the is that there can be many different Yves Madec, Enrico Marchetti, Juan Marrero, Javier E-ELT was sufficient to warrant the pro- ways in which a given science case may Marti, Jorge Melnick, Katia Montironi, Christian gramme entering the construction depend on the diameter. Muckle, Michael Mueller, Julio Navarette, Helène phase”. Moreover, the “E-ELT budget was Neuville, Lothar Noethe, Paolo Padovani, Luca Pasquini, Jérôme Paufique, Lorenzo Pettazzi, Marco highly cost-effective” and the “FEED At the highest level we may distinguish Quattri, Jutta Quentin, Andrea Richichi, Robert methodology had been highly effective in between the following three classes Ridings, Mark Robinson, Michael Rosa, Stefan generating reliable cost estimates” (for a of science cases: (i) cases where science Sandrock, Pierre Sansgasset, Marc Sarazin, Michael definition of FEED see below p. 8). is irretrievably lost by reducing the tele- Schneermann, Dominik Schneller, Babak Sedghi, Ralf Siebenmorgen, Isabelle Surdej, Arek Swat, scope diameter; (ii) cases where the loss Donald Tait, Roberto Tamai, Arno van Kesteren, Elise However, the final cost estimate at the of telescope diameter can be compen- Vernet, Joël Vernet, Gianluca Verzichelli, Anders end of phase B was € 200 million above sated for by increasing the observing Wallander, Yves Wesse, Natalia Yaitskova, Michele the top end of the target. The project was time or adjusting some other observa- Zamparelli. asked to consider whether any significant tional parameter; (iii) cases that are not cost savings could be delivered without affected by the reduction of the telescope The European Extremely Large Tele- compromising the scientific capabilities of diameter at all. scope (E-ELT) has evolved over the the telescope. Unfortunately the answer last few years since the phase B review to this question was no. Some reduction The unique spatial resolution of the E-ELT of the 42-metre design. While the in scope from the 42-metre aperture is one of its defining characteristics and design was strongly endorsed, the cost would be necessary. On the other hand, hence it is not surprising that many of the exceeded the maximum envelope and following a four-year design development science cases that have been proposed a re-baselining was implemented by phase the project was also aware of for the E-ELT aim to exploit this feature. the Project Office. The extent and rami- areas where technical and programmatic All cases that require the E-ELT resolution fications of the new design are outlined risks existed. Realistic funding scenarios to disentangle their targets from other including scientific, engineering and gave an earliest possible start for the nearby sources will be forced to adopt managerial aspects. Prototyping activi- project in 2012 and therefore there was less demanding goals for the 39-metre ties of some of the components are time to work on mitigating those risks. E-ELT than originally envisaged for the described and the first light instruments The Project Office undertook to explore 42-metre design. This observational sce- have been selected. The new baseline cost saving and risk mitigation options nario encompasses a vast range of sci- for the 39-metre E-ELT has been ac during 2011. These changes have been ence cases, and prominent examples 2 The Messenger 148 – June 2012 include the direct detection of exoplanets independent of diameter for the specific work. Reducing the cost of the dome (all high-contrast imaging applications regime under consideration here, i.e. required a reduction in the overall volume depend particularly strongly on the diam- when going from the 42-metre to the occupied by the telescope and reducing eter), the study of the resolved stellar 39-metre aperture. This class does not the cost of all other components of the populations of other galaxies, and studies encompass many cases, but one promi- programme (excluding instrumentation) of supermassive black holes and their nent example is the detection of low- also required a reduction in the dimen- environments in the centre of our own mass exoplanets using the radial velocity sions of the telescope. and other galaxies. method. The 42-metre E-ELT design was based The other subcategory in this class of The overall loss of scientific efficiency on a three-mirror anastigmat used on- irretrievable loss contains cases where resulting from the reduction of the E-ELT axis with two folding flat mirrors extract- the observing time cannot arbitrarily diameter depends of course on how ing the beam to a suitable Nasmyth focus be extended, even in principle. Among the observing time will be distributed (Spyromilio et al., 2008). This design was such cases are included observations among the various science cases, each driven by the requirement for a Nasmyth of non-recurring transient events, such following different scaling laws. This is focus, that the telescope be adaptive as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) or super- difficult to know a priori, but it is reason- and the large diameter. These three basic novae, and short recurring events with able to assume that the E-ELT will spend requirements, combined with a number very long periods between repetitions, much of its time doing science that of engineering risks (e.g., the maximum such as some eclipses or transits. In all of depends on the power of the diameter to size of the deformable mirror that was these cases the reduction of diameter the squared or fourth power, resulting in viable within cost and schedule con- will lead to a loss of signal-to-noise (S/N) an overall loss of efficiency in the range of straints), confined the parameter space. that cannot be compensated for by in 20 to 35%. Our competitors have chosen more creasing the integration time. classical designs: Ritchey-Chrétien (RC) In addition to assessing the overall loss in the case of the Thirty Metre Telescope The second class of science cases con- of scientific efficiency, it was also evalu- (TMT) and Gregorian in the case of the tains those that are limited by the S/N ated whether any individual science Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). We that is achievable on their targets, and cases are rendered completely infeasible considered whether a smaller telescope where the S/N is not dominated by by the reduction in the E-ELT diameter, would warrant completely new thinking (diameter-independent) astrophysical in the sense that the diameter is now in the optical design, but concluded that error sources or systematic uncertainties below some critical threshold value for the incorporation of adaptive optics in (astrophysical, instrumental, or other- these cases.