Mid-infrared astronomy with the E-ELT: Performance of METIS

We present results of performance modelling for METIS, the Mid-infrared European Extremely Large TelescopeImager and Spectrograph. Designed by a consortium of NOVA (Netherlands), UK Astronomy Technology Centre(UK), MPIA Heidelberg (Germany), CEA Saclay (France) and KU Leuven (Belgium), METIS will cover theatmospheric windows in L, M and N-band and will offer imaging, medium-resolution slit spectroscopy (R~1000-3000) and high-resolution integral field spectroscopy (R~100,000). Our model uses a detailed set of inputparameters for site characteristics and atmospheric profiles, optical design, thermal background and the mostup-to-date IR detector specifications. We show that METIS will bring an orders-of-magnitude level improvementin sensitivity and resolution over current ground-based IR facilities, bringing mid-IR sensitivities to the micro-Jansky regime. As the only proposed E-ELT instrument to cover this entire spectral region, and the only mid-IRhigh-resolution integral field unit planned on the ground or in space, METIS will open up a huge discovery spacein IR astronomy in the next decade.

extremely large telescopes
infrared astronomy
infrared instrumentation
imaging
spectroscopy
simulation

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