학술논문
The CUBES Science Case
Document Type
Working Paper
Author
Evans, Chris; Cristiani, Stefano; Opitom, Cyrielle; Cescutti, Gabriele; D'Odorico, Valentina; Alcalá, Juan Manuel; Alencar, Silvia H. P.; Balashev, Sergei; Barbuy, Beatriz; Bastian, Nate; Battino, Umberto; Cambianica, Pamela; Carini, Roberta; Carter, Brad; Cassisi, Santi; Castilho, Bruno Vaz; Christlieb, Norbert; Cooke, Ryan; Covino, Stefano; Cremonese, Gabriele; Cunha, Katia; da Silva, André R.; D'Elia, Valerio; De Cia, Annalisa; De Silva, Gayandhi; Diaz, Marcos; Di Marcantonio, Paolo; Ernandes, Heitor; Fitzsimmons, Alan; Franchini, Mariagrazia; Gänsicke, Boris T.; Genoni, Matteo; Giribaldi, Riano E.; Grazian, Andrea; Hansen, Camilla Juul; La Forgia, Fiorangela; Lazzarin, Monica; Marcolino, Wagner; Marconi, Marcella; Migliorini, Alessandra; Noterdaeme, Pasquier; Pereira, Claudio; Pilecki, Bogumil; Quirrenbach, Andreas; Randich, Sofia; Rossi, Silvia; Smiljanic, Rodolfo; Snodgrass, Colin; Stürmer, Julian; Trost, Andrea; Vanzella, Eros; Ventura, Paolo; Wright, Duncan; Zafar, Tayyaba
Source
Subject
Language
Abstract
We introduce the scientific motivations for the development of the Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph (CUBES) that is now in construction for the Very Large Telescope. The assembled cases span a broad range of contemporary topics across Solar System, Galactic and extragalactic astronomy, where observations are limited by the performance of current ground-based spectrographs shortwards of 400nm. A brief background to each case is presented and specific technical requirements on the instrument design that flow-down from each case are identified. These were used as inputs to the CUBES design, that will provide a factor of ten gain in efficiency for astronomical spectroscopy over 300-405nm, at resolving powers of R~24,000 and ~7,000. We include performance estimates that demonstrate the ability of CUBES to observe sources that are up to three magnitudes fainter than currently possible at ground-ultraviolet wavelengths, and we place its predicted performance in the context of existing facillities.
Comment: Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy
Comment: Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy