BlueMUSE is a proposition for an optical seeing-limited, blue-optimised, medium spectral resolution, panoramic integral-field-spectrograph, to be installed on one of the telescopes of the VLT on Cerro Paranal (Chile). The project is an evolution of the technology used on the very successful VLT / MUSE instrument, with a similar architecture and many similar systems, but with a new and distinct science case enabled by its main characteristics: a wavelength coverage from 350nm to 600nm, an average spectral resolution R=4000, and a 2 square arcmin field-of-view.
The MUSICOS project is funded by an ERC Advanced Grant and led by Roland Bacon (CRAL). It is dedicated to MUSE imaging of the cosmic web ultra-deep observations of intergalactic and circumgalactic gas. The MUSE/VLT-ESO instrument had been designed and built by an European consortium led by the CRAL with the PI Roland Bacon.
The CALENDS projet (Clusters And LENsing Distant Sources) is funded by an ERC Starting Grant led by Johan Richard (CRAL). CALENDS is dedicated to the analysis of observational data on lensing cluster fields. The CALENDS team analyses large multiwavelength datasets obtained on lensing clusters low-luminosity lensed galaxies at redshifts, 1 < z < 7. They include data from, e.g., HST, Spitzer, Herschel, MUSE/ESO-VLT, KMOS/ESO-VLT, ALMA, and they study both resolved and unresolved galaxy physical properties against more massive samples selected in blank fields.
The SPHINX project is led by Joakim Rosdahl (CRAL). SPHINX suite of cosmological radiation-hydrodynamical simulations is designed to simultaneously capture large-scale reionization and the escape of ionizing radiation from thousands of resolved galaxies during the first billion years of the Universe. Our volumes resolve haloes down to the atomic cooling limit and model the inter-stellar medium of galaxies with better than ≈ 10 parsec resolution. The project has numerous goals in improving our understanding of reionization and making predictions for future observations.
The 3DGasFlows projet (2017-2023) is an ANR funded project led by Nicolas Bouché (CRAL). It is dedicated to the analysis of gas-flows around galaxies and in the circum-galactic medium (CGM). The project aims aims at putting direct constraints on both in- and out-flow processes through (i) innovations on observations using the non-conventional technique of background quasars with data from MUSE, ALMA, NOEMA, and HST; and (ii) state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations and radiative transfer models.
The POPSYCLE project, financed by the ANR is driven at CRAL by Philippe Prugniel. Its goal is to produce the new generation of stellar population models, required for the scientific exploitation of the EUCLID or JWST data. The precision of spectroscopic and photometric data on galaxies (and star clusters) so much progressed that the models used to derive the mass and the history of the chemical composition and star formation of galaxies are now insufficient. The project will identify processed of the stellar physics that potentially matter, and will implement them consistently in the different aspect of the population modelling. These models will themselves use the ’X-Shooter Stellar Library’ (XSL), whose development is central to the activities of the team. This library uses observations obtained by the ESO VLT, and is a milestone in the history of population modelling because (i)it covers consistently the spectrum form the optical UV to the near infrared, and (ii) its spectral resolution is suited to the instruments that will be used over the next decade. The current developments consist in combining XSL with synthetic spectra of stellar atmosphere, to add the capability to represent the first galaxies (in the distant Universe), as well as those of the Local Universe.
The DARK project (2023-2027) is an ANR funded project led by Nicolas Bouché (CRAL). It is dedicated to the analysis of dark matter inside distant galaxies. The project aims to place strong constraints on dark matter profiles using innovative 3D modeling techniques for spiral galaxies on MUSE data; and (ii) radiative-hydrodynamic simulations of disk galaxies.