MOONS astronomy instrument achieves first light at ESO's Very Large Telescope
The Multi-Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph (MOONS) has achieved First Light at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, marking the culmination of over a decade of international collaboration. MOONS can simultaneously observe nearly 1,000 stars or galaxies across visible and near-infrared wavelengths, and its first observation captured the heart of the Milky Way by peering through dust that normally obscures the galactic center. The instrument is a spectrograph that splits light into detailed spectra to determine properties such as chemical composition, temperature, motion, and distance, with the ability to collect this information for nearly 1,000 objects in a single observation. The UK Astronomy Technology Centre led the international consortium that built MOONS, which will address major astronomical questions about how the Milky Way and galaxies formed and evolved over billions of years.
