The near-infrared GRAVITY instrument has become a fully operational spectro-imager, while expanding its capability to support astrometry of the key Galactic Centre science The mid-infrared MATISSE instrument has just arrived on Paranal and is starting its commissioning phase NAOMI, the new adaptive optics for the Auxiliary Telescopes, is about to leave Europe for an installation in the fall of 2018 Meanwhile, the interferometer infrastructure has continuously improved in performance, in term of transmission and vibrations, when used with both the Unit Telescopes and Auxiliary Telescopes These are the highlights of the last two years of the VLTI 2nd generation upgrade started in 2015

VLTI status update: three years into the second generation

Following the arrival of MATISSE, the second-generation of VLTI instrumentation is now complete and was simultaneously enhanced by a major facility upgrade including the NAOMI Adaptive Optics on the Auxiliary Telescopes. On the Unit Telescopes, significant efforts were also made to improve the injection stability into VLTI instruments. On top of GRAVITY's own evolution, its fringe tracker is now being used to allow coherent integrations on MATISSE (the so-called GRA4MAT project). Meanwhile, operations also evolved to be more flexible and make the most of an extended observing parameter space. In this context, we present an overview of the current VLTI performances. Finally, we will report on on-going improvements such as the extension of the longest baselines.

VLTI status update: tapping into a powerful second-generation instrumentation

An international group of scientists has begun planning for the Planet Formation Imager (PFI, this http URL), a next-generation infrared interferometer array with the primary goal of imaging the active phases of planet formation in nearby star forming regions and taking planetary system 'snapshots' of young systems to understand exoplanet architectures. PFI will be sensitive to warm dust emission using mid-infrared capabilities made possible by precise fringe tracking in the near-infrared. An L/M band beam combiner will be especially sensitive to thermal emission from young exoplanets (and their circumplanetary disks) with a high spectral resolution mode to probe the kinematics of CO and H2O gas. In this brief White Paper, we summarize the main science goals of PFI, define a baseline PFI architecture that can achieve those goals, and identify key technical challenges that must be overcome before the dreams of PFI can be realized within the typical cost envelope of a major observatory. We also suggest activities over the next decade at the flagship US facilities (CHARA, NPOI, MROI) that will help make the Planet Formation Imager facility a reality. The key takeaway is that infrared interferometry will require new experimental telescope designs that can scale to 8 m-class with the potential to reduce per area costs by x10, a breakthrough that would also drive major advances across astronomy.

Setting the Stage for the Planet Formation Imager.

The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) is a next-generation infrared interferometer designed to image the active phases of planet formation and to take planetary “snapshots” of young systems. We outline a technology plan to make PFI a reality, identifying a potential breakthrough opportunity for making inexpensive large telescopes available.

Setting the Stage for the Planet Formation Imager

MATISSE is the 2 nd generation mid-infrared instrument designed to combine four VLTI telescopes in the L, M and N spectral bands It’s commissioning in Paranal is in progress since March 2018 and should continue until the middle of 2019 Here we report, in June 2018, the commissioning plan, tools and the preliminary results of the first two commissioning runs in MATISSE that show that the instrument is already fully operational with a sensitivity well beyond its specification The quality of the measurements, as they obtained by the current observing procedures and delivered by the current pipeline are already good enough for a broad range of science observations However, our results remain quite preliminary and they will be quite substantially improved by the work in progress in instrument calibration, observing procedures optimization and data processing updates

Commissioning MATISSE: first results

MATISSE (Multi AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment) is the spectro-interferometer for the VLTI of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), operating in the L-, M- and N- spectral bands, and combining up to four beams from the unit or the auxiliary telescopes (UTs or ATs). MATISSE will offer new breakthroughs in the study of circumstellar environments by allowing the mapping of the material distribution, the gas and essentially the dust. The instrument consists in a warm optical system (WOP) accepting four beams from the VLTI and relaying them after a spectral splitting to cold optical benches (COB) located in two separate cryostats, one in L-M- band, and one in N-band. The test plan of the complete instrument has been conducted at the Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur in order to confirm the compliance of the performance with the high-level requirements. MATISSE has successfully passed the Preliminary Acceptance in Europe the 12th September 2017. Following this result, ESO gave approval for the instrument to be shipped to Paranal. The Alignment, Integration and Verification phase was conducted until end of February 2018, at the end of which first observations on sky have been performed to test the operations with the VLTI and to obtain first stellar light. The two first runs of the commissioning followed, respectively in March and in May 2018. It has the goal to optimize the MATISSE-VLTI communication, the acquisition procedures and the interface parameters. The observations were performed on bright L-M- and N- stars, with four ATs located on short baselines and UTs. The limit magnitudes will be deduced. This paper reports on the performance of the instrument measured in laboratory (results of test plan in Nice and AIV in Paranal) in terms of spectral coverage, dispersion laws and spectral resolutions, and transfer function analysis: instrumental contrast, visibility accuracy, accuracy of the differential phase, of the closure-phase and of the differential visibility. It also provides results of the first tests on sky and the planning of the on-going commissioning.

MATISSE: performance in laboratory, results of AIV in Paranal, and first results on sky

MATISSE is the second-generation mid-infrared spectrograph and imager for the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at Paranal. This new interferometric instrument will allow significant advances in various fundamental research fields: studying the planet-forming region of disks around young stellar objects, understanding the surface structures and mass loss phenomena affecting evolved stars, and probing the environments of black holes in active galactic nuclei. As a first breakthrough, MATISSE will enlarge the spectral domain of current optical interferometers by offering the L and M bands in addition to the N band. This will open a wide wavelength domain, ranging from 2.8 to 13 μm, exploring angular scales as small as 3 mas (L band) / 10 mas (N band). As a second breakthrough, MATISSE will allow mid-infrared imaging - closure-phase aperture-synthesis imaging - with the four Unit Telescopes (UT) or Auxiliary Telescopes (AT) of the VLTI. Moreover, MATISSE will offer a spectral resolution range from R ~ 30 to R ~ 5000. Here, we remind the concept, the instrumental design, and the main features of MATISSE. We also describe the last months of preparation, the status of the instrument, which was shipped to Cerro Paranal on the site of the ESO Very Large Telescope in October 2017, and the expected schedule for the opening to the community. The instrument is currently in its Commissioning phase. A complementary dedicated article details the Commissioning results, which include the first performance estimates on sky.

The installation and ongoing commissioning of the MATISSE mid-infrared interferometer at the ESO Very Large Telescope Observatory

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MATISSE: performance in laboratory, results of AIV in Paranal, and first results on sky

The installation and ongoing commissioning of the MATISSE mid-infrared interferometer at the ESO Very Large Telescope Observatory