X-shooter：欧南台的摄谱专家

来源：http://www.eso.org

图为X-shooter拍摄到的光谱

This illustration shows the three spectra produced simultaneously by the new efficient X-shooter instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. X-shooter can record the entire spectrum of a celestial object (in this example a distant lensed quasar) in one shot — from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared— with great sensitivity and spectral resolution. This unique new instrument will be particularly useful for the study of distant exploding objects called gamma-ray bursts, among the most energetic events in the Universe, which fade rapidly in brightness in matter of hours after the their appearance. The rainbow colours applied to the spectra indicate X-shooter’s wide spectral coverage and are meant for illustrative purposes only. The majority of the wavelengths covered are in fact invisible to the human eye.

真貌

The first of the second generation Very Large Telescope instrument, X-shooter, is now ready to start routine observations. X-shooter is unique among astronomical instruments installed at large telescopes, as it can record the entire spectrum of a celestial object in one shot — from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared — with great sensitivity and spectral resolution. Credit: ESO

大图链接http://www.eso.org/gallery/d/93870-2/phot-20b-09-fullres.jpg

安装中

The first of the second generation Very Large Telescope instrument, X-shooter, was installed at the VLT at the end of 2008 and the first observations in its full configuration were made on 14 March 2009, demonstrating that the instrument works efficiently over the full spectral range, from the difficult ultraviolet spectral range to the limit of the K-band dominated by thermal emission, and this with unprecedented resolution and quality. X-shooter has already proved its full capability by obtaining the complete spectra of low metallicity stars, of X-ray binaries, of distant quasars and galaxies, of the nebulae associated with Eta Carinae and the supernova 1987A, as well as with the observation of a distant gamma-ray burst and a supernova that coincidently exploded at the time of the commissioning run.

大图链接http://www.eso.org/gallery/d/93872-2/phot-20c-09-fullres.jpg