This paper presents the specification, design, and development of the Visible Camera (VIS) on the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission. VIS is a large optical-band imager with a field of view of 0.54 deg sampled at 0 . 1 with an array of 609 Megapixels and spatial resolution of 0 . 18. It will be used to survey approximately 14 000 deg2 of extragalactic sky to measure the distortion of galaxies in the redshift range z = 0.1–1.5 resulting from weak gravitational lensing, one of the two principal cosmology probes of Euclid. With photometric redshifts, the distribution of dark matter can be mapped in three dimensions, and, from how this has changed with look-back time, the nature of dark energy and theories of gravity can be constrained. The entire VIS focal plane will be transmitted to provide the largest images of the Universe from space to date, reaching mAB ≥24.5withasignal-to-noiseratioS/N≥10inasinglebroadIE ≃(r+i+z) band over a six year survey. The particularly challenging aspects of the instrument are the control and calibration of observational biases, which lead to stringent performance requirements and calibration regimes. With its combination of spatial resolution, calibration knowledge, depth, and area covering most of the extra-Galactic sky, VIS will also provide a legacy data set for many other fields. This paper discusses the rationale behind the instrument concept and describes the instrument design and development before reporting the pre-launch performance derived from ground calibrations and brief results from the in-orbit commissioning. VIS should reach fainter than mAB = 25 with S/N ≥ 10 for galaxies of full-width half-maximum of 0.3 in a 1.3 diameter aperture over the Wide Survey, and mAB ≥ 26.4 for a Deep Survey that will cover more than 50 deg2 . The paper also describes how the instrument works with the other Euclid components of survey, telescope, and science data processing to extract the cosmological information.

Euclid. II. The VIS Instrument

D. Maino;L. Moscardini;E. Romelli;D. Tavagnacco;A. Biviano;C. Porciani;E. Sefusatti;S. Borgani;M. Costanzi;A. Gregorio
Membro del Collaboration Group
;
C. Moretti;T. Gasparetto;
2024-01-01

Abstract

This paper presents the specification, design, and development of the Visible Camera (VIS) on the European Space Agency’s Euclid mission. VIS is a large optical-band imager with a field of view of 0.54 deg sampled at 0 . 1 with an array of 609 Megapixels and spatial resolution of 0 . 18. It will be used to survey approximately 14 000 deg2 of extragalactic sky to measure the distortion of galaxies in the redshift range z = 0.1–1.5 resulting from weak gravitational lensing, one of the two principal cosmology probes of Euclid. With photometric redshifts, the distribution of dark matter can be mapped in three dimensions, and, from how this has changed with look-back time, the nature of dark energy and theories of gravity can be constrained. The entire VIS focal plane will be transmitted to provide the largest images of the Universe from space to date, reaching mAB ≥24.5withasignal-to-noiseratioS/N≥10inasinglebroadIE ≃(r+i+z) band over a six year survey. The particularly challenging aspects of the instrument are the control and calibration of observational biases, which lead to stringent performance requirements and calibration regimes. With its combination of spatial resolution, calibration knowledge, depth, and area covering most of the extra-Galactic sky, VIS will also provide a legacy data set for many other fields. This paper discusses the rationale behind the instrument concept and describes the instrument design and development before reporting the pre-launch performance derived from ground calibrations and brief results from the in-orbit commissioning. VIS should reach fainter than mAB = 25 with S/N ≥ 10 for galaxies of full-width half-maximum of 0.3 in a 1.3 diameter aperture over the Wide Survey, and mAB ≥ 26.4 for a Deep Survey that will cover more than 50 deg2 . The paper also describes how the instrument works with the other Euclid components of survey, telescope, and science data processing to extract the cosmological information.
2024
Epub ahead of print
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11368/3097291
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