Post on 22-Dec-2015
Future of the GMT
Warrick CouchSwinburne University
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
GMT2010: Opening New Frontiers with the Giant Magellan Telescope
“the GMT project is anticipated to bring a quantum jump in the
development of Korean astronomy.”
“The goal of this workshop is to review the current status of the GMT
project and to discuss sciences, instruments and
some of the technical challenges for the GMT.”
Purpose?
SCIENCE – no shortage of ideas and drivers for GMT, some of which will be transformational!
• Disks and planets− debris disks (Song); transitional systems (Lyo)
• First objects in the universe− QSOs as probes (Im); 1st stars relic signature (Ahn); testing
expansion using LSS topology (Rossi)
• Stars and the ISM− stars with planets (Kang); ISM around SNRs/YSOs (Shinn);
SNR shock filaments (Lee)• Galaxies, AGN, Cosmology
− LSS/galaxy evoln (Park); MBH/galaxy evoln (Woo); massive galaxy formation (Yi); Lyα blobs (Yang); N-F cosmol (M-G Lee, An); LRSI (J Lee); glob clusters (Y-W Lee, J-W Lee); cluster gal evoln (Lee, Kim)
Plus 11+ posters in most of these areas!
SCIENCE – important synergies GMT will have with other major telescope facilities
• JWST (Mark Clampin) [launch ≥ 2014]− Will win hands down on broad-band imaging over NIR
and MIR regions− GMT wins in terms of spatial resolution (@DL) and
sensitivity for R>1000 NIR spectroscopy • ALMA (Nagayoshi Ohashi) [2012]
− Molecular gas content and thermal dust emission measurements of importance to ALL science areas/targets of interest to GMT
− Diffraction-limited spatial resolution of GMT well matched to that of ALMA (~20mas in K)
GMT’s southern hemisphere location will also mean strong synergies with LSST and SKA
INSTRUMENTS – the ‘vehicles’ for realizing our scientific aspirations and whose capabilities are
determined accordingly! • GMACS (DePoy)• NIRMOS (Fabricant)• GMTNIRS (Jaffe)• GMTIFS (McGregor)
Hard choices will have to be made – essential the GMT partnership is very clear on its scientific priorities & the
best instrument choices given GMT design & competition
• G-CLEF (R=20,000-150,000 optical spec)• TIGER (Mid-IR imager with coronagraph)• MANIFEST (MANy Instrument FibrE SysTem)
AO
AO
AO
GLAO
TECHNICAL CHALLENGES
Two key areas:
(1)Mirror design and fabrication• M1 (7 x 8.4m) – can we produce off-axis
segments; can we do it fast enough?• M2 (7 x 1.1m ASM’s) – build and integrate
to work in concert with M1 segments?
(2)Adaptive Optics (NGS, LTAO, MCAO, ExAO)• Obvious complexity!• Segment piston error – phase of the incoming
wavefront cannot be measured between M1 segments
CAUSE FOR OPTIMISM
“Ground layer AO with an adaptive ‐secondary is now a demonstrated image sharpening technique with enormouslybroad application.” – M. Hart
The future of GMT – other challenges ahead
(from Pat McCarthy)
Many key challenges & decision points during this period
Main challenges & decisions looming:
• Primary mirror segment production− Need to produce remaining 6 segments in 8 yrs
(avg: 1 per 16 months) to make mid-2019 deadline• Instrument selection
− We cannot have them all; will need to down-select 2-3 as ‘first light’ instruments – which ones???
• Preliminary Design Review− Revised and more accurate construction costing− Outstanding risks yet to be retired?
Main challenges & decisions looming:
• Funding− 35% of funding required for GMT construction
raised; but remaining 65% still to be found− What fraction of total construction budget needs
to be raised before construction can begin?− Cost/danger of sustaining/losing ‘marching army’
• Partners
− GMT partnership 85% subscribed− Intentions of US NSF re GMT involvement?− Implications of US Decadal Survey (ASTRO2010)?
15
Key Members or The Project Team
Matt Johns
Project Manager
Steven Dolmseth
CFO
George Jacoby
Instrumentation Scientist
Antonin Bouchez
AO Scientist
Michael Ward
Lead Systems Engineer
Steve Shectman
Project Scientist
Steve Gunnels
Lead Mechanical Engineer
Jose Filgueira
Lead Controls Engineer
GMT Adaptive Optics Team
Antonin Bouchez
GMT AO Scientist
Palomar AO System
Michael Hart
MMT ASM, GLAO
Phil Hinz
LBTI PI, MMT AO
Olivier Guyon
Subaru AO Lead
Marcos Van Dam
AO Consultant
GMT Institutions
HarvardCarnegie
Texas A&M
ANU
KASI U. Arizona
LCO
SAO
U. Texas Austin
AAL
(2008)
(2010)
(2010)
???
GMT Workshops
Finally, some thanks are in order:
•Myung Gyoon Lee for chairing the SOC
•Myungshin Im (Chair) and his LOC team: Sang Chul Kim, Young-Soo Kim, Jeong-Eun Lee, Soojong Pak, Jong-Hak Woo
•Seoul National University and KASI for sponsoring the meeting
•Seoul National University for hosting the meeting