The two projects “Stellar Clusters in 4MOST” and “4MOST Survey of Young Stars” (4SYS) have been approved
The “4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope” (4MOST) certainly is among those instruments that will play an important role in the next future of astronomy. 4MOST is a multi-object spectrograph capable of acquiring more than 2400 spectra simultaneously and observe a very large field of 4 square degrees. This is possible thanks to a complex system of optical fibers which can be allocated at different positions in the field of view and that will feed two average-resolution (R≈7000) and one high-resolution (R≈20000) spectrometers. The instrument will be installed on the VISTA telescope of the European Southern Observatory, equipped with a 4-meters mirror with active optic. The first light is planned by the end of 2022.
The wide field of view and the capability of acquire multi-object spectra at average and high resolution makes 4MOST a perfect instruments for extensive surveys, which can cover a large portion of the southern sky. There is a wide range of communities that can take advantage of 4MOST capabilities, from stellar and galactic astronomy to cosmology. Besides, 4MOST will provide complementary observations for missions such as Gaia, Euclid, and eROSITA. It is thus not surprising that the scientific community answered with enthusiasm to the call for letters of intent released by ESO in November 2019. Only a small fraction of the submitted letter of intents passed the next stage of selection, for which astronomers have been asked to prepare a detailed document described their proposed projects. The final list of approved programs has been issued on December 2021. These projects will constitute 30% of the whole 4MOST observing time, with the remaining 70% will be dedicated to 10 consortium surveys.
Among the projects that passed the final selection, two involve astronomers from the Astronomical Observatory of Palermo. The former is the project “Stellar Clusters in 4MOST“, led by S. Lucatello of INAF – Astronomical Observatory of Padua, which aims at mapping the chemical and dynamical properties of stellar clusters, studying their formation process, and understanding the importance of the interaction between stellar clusters and galactic components. To this aim, 120000 stars will be observed at low resolution and 90000 at high resolution. This will constitute the richest sample to date of spectroscopic observations of stars associated with stellar clusters. The latter project is the “4MOST Survey of Young Stars“, led by G. Sacco of INAF- Astrophysical Observatory of Arcetri. In the framework of this project, more than 100000 young stars (e.g. younger than 100 million of years) closer than 1600 light years from the Sun will be observed, with the aim of measuring their chemical properties, kinematics, and age in order to trace the evolution of dispersing stellar systems, quantifying the star formation rate in the Solar neighbourhood, providing a rich list of young stars to study the formation of planetary systems, and improving theoretical models on early stellar evolution. The astronomers of INAF – Astronomical Observatory of Palermo involved in at least one program are: Sara Bonito, Francesco Damiani, Ettore Flaccomio, Mario Giuseppe Guarcello, Giusi Micela and Loredana Prisinzano.
The figure (click here to visualize the entire image) shows a 3D rendering of 4MOST.
Mario Giuseppe Guarcello ( follow mguarce) ( youtube)
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