The latest generation of woven astronomical spectrographs, on which scientists from the University of Granada (UGR) are working and will obtain information about the physical and chemical properties of stars, has emitted its first light.
Scientists from the UGR’s Department of Theoretical and Cosmos Physics, along with experts from other institutions in Spain, England, the Netherlands, France and Italy, are working on the development of one of the main mappings of the Weave astronomical spectrograph, which has produced its first light.
The spectrograph is in the process of being refined, already taking high-quality data and for its first light parameters it has been obtained for two galaxies from the Stephan’s Quintet, a group of interacting galaxies that have been observed at different wavelengths by the Chandra satellite. , Spitzer, and JWST.
For these observations, the integral field spectroscopy (LIFU) mode instrument was selected, which separately measures 547 regions of the two galaxies and their surroundings and collects information from the ultraviolet to the near infrared.
Thanks to these images, it is possible to study how collisions between galaxies affect the galaxies involved.
Weave is a sophisticated spectrograph attached to the William Herschel telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Canary Islands).
It uses optical fiber to collect light from an astronomical object and transmits this light to its two arms, where it is separated into different wavelengths, and then recorded by the instrument’s CCD detector.
The spectrum obtained contains information about the physical and chemical properties of stars, galaxies, or interstellar and intergalactic gas, depending on the scientific case, which astrophysicists use to test theoretical models.
The construction of the spectrograph was led by G. Dalton, from the University of Oxford (United Kingdom) and is a unique instrument, as it offers multiple observation modes that allow for a large number of scientific projects, thanks to which you can observe up to 960 different objects simultaneously.
More than 500 scientists have compiled eight major sky charts for Weave and cover studies of star evolution, the Milky Way, galaxy evolution, and cosmology.
This mapping will last for the next five years and has an allocation of 70% of the available time.
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