2023/08/30 by Roland Bacon, Martin M. Roth, Bacon, Roland +7
Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2308.16064
openalex publication_date 2023/08/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The wide-field spectroscopic survey telescope (WST) is proposed to become the next large optical/near infrared facility for the European Southern Observatory (ESO) once the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has become operational. While the latter is optimized for unprecedented sensitivity and adaptive-optics assisted image quality over a small field-of-view, WST addresses the need for large survey volumes in spectroscopy with the light-collecting power of a 10 m class telescope. Its unique layout will feature the combination of multi-object and integral field spectroscopy simultaneously. For the intended capacity of this layout a very large number of detectors is needed. The complexity of the detector systems presents a number of challenges that are discussed with a focus on novel approaches and innovative detector designs that can be expected to emerge over the anticipated 20-year timeline of this project.