MAVIS

The Multi-conjugate-adaptive-optics-Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph (MAVIS) is a unique instrument that will be installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal Observatory in Chile. From its privileged position on the VLT Unit Telescope 4 (Yepun), it will produce images in the visible part of the light spectrum, up to three times sharper than those obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope.  

With its ability to observe faint, distant objects and crowded fields, MAVIS will tackle a wide range of exciting research questions, allowing for the first time a complete picture of the properties of star clusters across cosmic times, from the inner regions of nearby globular clusters to the first stellar clumps in the early Universe. With MAVIS, we will be able to explore the birth, life, and death of stars and their planets in our Milky Way galaxy, and to resolve individual star and find intermediate mass black holes in nearby galaxies. Further afield, we will be able to explore distant galaxies, including finding out more about how the very first galaxies formed and evolved. Closer to us, MAVIS will contribute to the study of the 3D structure and of atmospheric properties of our Solar System moons, planets and small bodies, like comets and asteroids. 

MAVIS is made of three main parts: an adaptive optics system, to correct for atmospheric turbulence, a post-focal imager and an integral field spectrograph. To produce extremely sharp images, the adaptive optics system will remove the blur caused by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere. The instrument will make full use of the VLT’s own sophisticated adaptive optics facility — which has powerful laser guide stars and an adaptive mirror that can be deformed hundreds of times per second — and include two more adaptive mirrors and other systems to better correct these distortions. The ability to deliver corrected images in the visible wavelength range, over a wide field-of-view, is what makes MAVIS a one-of-a-kind instrument, able to complement other facilities observing in the near-infrared part of the spectrum.  

The instrument is being developed by an international consortium led by the Australian National University.