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 400 nm. 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 300-405 nm, 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.
The CUBES science case / Evans, C., Cristiani, S., Opitom, C., Cescutti, G., D'Odorico, V., Alcala, J.M., Alencar, S.H.P., Balashev, S., Barbuy, B., Bastian, N., Battino, U., Cambianica, P., Carini, R., Carter, B., Cassisi, S., Vaz Castilho, B., Christlieb, N., Cooke, R., Covino, S., Cremonese, G., et al.. - In: EXPERIMENTAL ASTRONOMY. - ISSN 0922-6435. - 55:1(2023), pp. 1-57. [10.1007/s10686-022-09864-7]
The CUBES science case
Cristiani S.;Cescutti G.;D'Odorico V.;Franchini M.;Grazian A.;Trost A.;Vanzella E.;
2023-01-01
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 400 nm. 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 300-405 nm, 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.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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