WST: new frontiers for Spectroscopic Surveys – Vincenzo Mainieri (ESO, Germany)

The demand for a large telescope dedicated to spectroscopic surveys is an interest shared worldwide and figures explicitly in many national strategic science plans. The Wide Field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST) is a community lead initiative to fill this crucial gap in astronomical capability and will work in synergy with future ground and space-based facilities.  WST is designed as a 12m aperture telescope with simultaneous operation of a large field-of-view (3 sq. degree), high-multiplex (30,000) multi-object spectrograph (MOS) and a giant 3×3 arcmin integral field spectrograph (IFS). I will present the status of the project, including telescope and instrument design, operational concept, and sustainability impact.  I will describe the very wide range of science topics that WST will tackle as developed by a Science Team including more than 800 scientists. WST will address outstanding scientific questions in the areas of cosmology; galaxy assembly, evolution, and enrichment, including our own Milky Way; the origin of stars and planets; and time domain and multi-messenger astrophysics .

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/sf-zoF_dnG8