24-armed telescope could unlock universe’s secrets

A NEW telescopic instrument with 24 robotic arms built by Scottish scientists has crossed the Atlantic to a mountaintop in Chile to help answer key questions about the origins of the universe.

The KMOS (K-Band Multi 
Object Spectrometer) is a giant leap forward in near-infrared 
astronomy, allowing scientists to view many galaxies simultaneously while still seeing the individual properties of each one.

Built and assembled at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) at Blackford Hill, 
Edinburgh, each of the 24 robotic arms, which have gold-plated mirrors on their tips, can be moved into position to pinpoint with extreme accuracy the light coming from distant galaxies.

Until now, each galaxy has had to be identified individually to obtain that information, a process that takes years. KMOS will be able to see the same amount of detail in just two months.

It is due to be fully assembled and operational, observing the “first light” sweep of stars and galaxies, by mid-November.

KMOS was built for the 
European Southern Observatory (ESO) at a cost of £15 million with funding from a number of European governments.

It will now be fitted to one of the four telescopes which make up the ESO’s Very Large Telescope at Paranal, 70 miles south of Antofagasta, providing astronomers with a far quicker way to uncover details about galaxies and their properties.

Led by UK ATC in Edinburgh, the team included institutions in the UK and Germany, Durham University, Oxford University and RAL Space at STFC’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Michele Cirasuolo, lead instrument scientist for KMOS at UK ATC in Edinburgh, said: “KMOS represents a pivotal step in our quest to scrutinise the distant universe. The ability to observe in the near-infrared 24 galaxies simultaneously is an enormous leap forward compared to any other current instrument.

“KMOS will allow a much faster survey speed... most of the observations done by similar near-infrared spectrographs over the last ten years could be done in just two months with KMOS.

“For each of the galaxies, KMOS will give an incredible amount of information. It’s not just a picture of a galaxy, but 3D spectroscopy providing the spatially resolved physics and the chemistry and the dynamics.

“This is crucial to understand how galaxies assemble their mass and shape their structure as a function of cosmic time, up to the formation of the very first galaxies, more than 13 billion years ago.”

Dr Cirasuolo added: “Scotland had made a unique contribution to the project. We have excellent engineers and scientists who developed and built the cryogenic arms from scratch.”

Minister for universities and science, David Willetts, said: “It’s excellent to see the UK playing a leading role in the development of such a sophisticated piece of technology and overcoming some very complex engineering challenges on the way.”