MOSAIC at ELT: overview and current status
Abstract
MOSAIC is the multi-object fibre spectrograph for ESO's 39-m Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). It offers unique capabilities for a gigantic telescope in terms of multiplexing, wavelength coverage and spectral resolution. MOSAIC covers the visible (0.39-0.95 microns) and NIR (0.95-1.8 microns) wavelength domains, with medium (R~4000-5000) and high (R~18000) resolving powers. It has been designed to cover the largest possible area (~40 arcmin²) on the ELT focal plane. MOSAIC is optimised to achieve maximum efficiency for surveys, and to reach the best signal-to-noise ratio on the faintest sources, from stars in the local Universe to galaxies at the epoch of the reionisation. With its multi-object and multi-IFU capabilities, MOSAIC will be the leading tool for spectroscopic follow-up of faint sources discovered by major facilities such as the James Webb Space Telescope, Euclid, Roman, SKA or LISA. This article presents an overview of MOSAIC together with the current status of the project.