The TU Delft Space Institute congratulates the Principal Investigator Bernhard Brandl, who is Professor of Infrared Astronomy at Leiden University and part-time Professor Astronomical Instrumentation at Delft University of Technology, to the agreement with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) for the design and construction of the METIS instrument. NOVA, the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy, represented by Leiden University, will be heading a large European consortium of universities and research institutions that will develop the camera and spectrometer METIS for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) which is currently under construction in the Chilean desert and expected to see first light in 2024.
The E-ELT will create entirely new perspectives in optical/IR astronomy. Taking advantage of the supreme spatial resolution from a 39-m aperture, METIS will open up a huge discovery space at mid-infrared wavelengths at the highest spatial and spectral resolutions. This will allow many advances in a wide range of astronomical areas, including the study of proto-planetary discs and the formation of planets, the properties of exoplanets, and, closer to home, the formation history of the Solar System. METIS will also probe the growth of supermassive black holes as well as study star-forming galaxies in the early Universe. More information on METIS can be found on the Leiden Observatory website.