Research

OmegaWINGS

WINGS (WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey: Fasano et al. 2006) is a wide-field and multiwavelength survey of 76 galaxy clusters in the local Universe. The sample consists of all clusters at 0.04 <z< 0.07 in both hemispheres at Galactic latitude | b | > 20 selected from the ROSAT X-ray-Brightest Abell-type Cluster Sample, the Brightest Cluster Sample, and its extensions. The WINGS survey is based on B and V imaging for the 76 clusters over a 34' × 34' field of view taken with the Wide Field Cameras on the INT and the 2.2m MPG/ESO telescopes.

With the aim of covering the virial region and extending out into the infall region, we have obtained GTO OmegaCAM imaging in the u-, B- and V-bands over 1 by 1 degree for 45 fields covering 46 WINGS clusters (Gullieuszik et al. 2015). A large spectroscopic follow-up campaign targeting these clusters was carried out with AAOmega on the AAT (Moretti et al. 2017 ). We named this extension of the WINGS survey, OmegaWINGS.

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Science cases for ELTs

To explore the possibilities that will be offered by forthcoming Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) like the E-ELT or the TMT, I started to work with simulated obsarvations of resolved and unresolved stellar populations.

The simulations were carried out by adopting the parameters of MICADO, the instrument designed for the 39-m aperture E-ELT to provide quasi-diffraction limited imaging over a wide (~1') field of view, and from the phase A study of MAORY, the Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics module for the E-ELT. For comparison with other next-generation telescopes, we carried out also simulations adoptiong the specifications for IRIS instrument at TMT and the NIRCam camera at JWST.

To evaluate the impact of the unique spatial resolution and sensitivity of ELTs in the study of both resolved and unresolved stellar populations, developed a few key science cases: (i) nearby nuclear star clusters to explore che accuracy of point-like photometry in extremely crowded stellar fields and (ii) galaxies at redshift 2-3 to assess the feasibility of accurate photometric and morphological measurements in high-redshift galaxies.

These results were included in the MAORY science cases white book

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