Astrophysical potential of the AMBER/VLTI instrument

Fabien Malbet (1) , Thomas Bloecker , Renaud Foy (2) , Didier Fraix-Burnet (1) , Philippe Mathias (3, 4) , Alesssandro Marconi (5) , Jean-Louis Monin (1) , Romain Petrov (6) , Philippe Stee (3, 4, 7, 8) , Leonardo Testi (5) , Gerd Weigelt (9)

1 LAOG - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
2 CRAL - Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon
3 CASSIOPEE - Laboratoire de Cosmologie, Astrophysique Stellaire & Solaire, de Planétologie et de Mécanique des Fluides
4 LG - Laboratoire Gemini
5 OAA - INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri
6 FIZEAU - Laboratoire Hippolyte Fizeau
7 LUAN - Laboratoire Universitaire d'Astrophysique de Nice
8 OCA - Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
9 MPIFR - Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie

AMBER is the near-infrared instrument of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). With a spectral resolution up to 10000 in the 1.2-2.4 micron wavelength range, AMBER will offer the possibility to combine 3 beams from the VLTI array either 8-m or 1.8m telescopes. The instrument has been designed to bring high precision measurement and high sensitivity and therefore opens the way to new domain of investigation in stellar physics and for the first time access to extragalactic sources. We show how the performance of the instrument can apply in these different astrophysical fields. We present the work of the Science Group and the AMBER consortium who defined precise astrophysical goals for the first years of operation.

Domains: Cosmology and Extra-Galactic Astrophysics [astro-ph.CO]

Fabien Malbet, Thomas Bloecker, Renaud Foy, Didier Fraix-Burnet, Philippe Mathias, et al.. Astrophysical potential of the AMBER/VLTI instrument. Interferometry for Optical Astronomy II, Aug 2002, Waikoloa, Hawaii, United States. pp.917-923, ⟨10.1117/12.458907⟩. ⟨hal-00199891⟩