During this symposium a status update will be given of the ESO Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and its instrumentation. Science topics are covered for which the most dramatic advances are expected at the end of this decade when the ELT will see first light (2028). With its 39m diameter primary mirror the ELT will be the largest visible and near-infrared telescope in the world, allowing transformative science in a large variety of fields, from planetary systems to resolved stellar populations, from galaxy properties to black holes, and from fundamental physics to cosmology. The full suite of first- and second-light instruments will be presented, as well as various science cases to be addressed by these instruments. We want to inform the European astronomical community and to connect it to this European flagship project. It is time to organize the scientific community and we have to make sure that the planned instruments are capable to address the key astronomical questions building on the results obtained with the present-day and future facilities such as the VLT and Keck telescopes, Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Gaia, Euclid, and the Square Kilometer Array.

We want to:

• Invite the European astronomical community to propose potentially interesting science cases to be addressed by the ELT and its instrumentation.
• Discuss the expected performance and capabilities of the ELT instruments with particular attention to realistic simulations of ELT photometric and spectroscopic data.
• Explore synergies with other facilities.

Programme

• Status of the Extremely Large Telescope, its instrumentation, and adaptive optics (presentations by M. Cirasuolo, B. Brandl, P. Ciliegi, R. Davies, A. Marconi, R. Pello, N. Thatte)
• The solar system and exoplanets
• Resolved stellar populations
• Galaxy formation and evolution
• The high-z universe
• The transient sky

Invited speakers

• Natascha Förster Schreiber (MPE, Germany)
• Valentina D'Odorico (INAF-Trieste Obs., Italy)
• Roberto Maiolino (Univ. Cambridge, UK)
• Eros Vanzella (INAF-OAS, Italy)
• Susanna Vergani (Obs. de Paris, France)
• Gael Chauvin (Cote d'Azur Obs., France)
• Soren Larsen (Radboud Univ,, Netherlands)
• Maximilian Häberle (MPIA, Germany)
...

Scientific organisers

• Francesca Annibali (Bologna, Italy, co-chair): MORFEO project scientist
• Bernhard Brandl (Leiden, The Netherlands): METIS principal investigator
• Paolo Ciliegi (INAF, Italy: MORFEO principal investigator
• Michele Cirasuolo (ESO, Germany): ELT project scientist
• Richard Davies (MPE, Germany): MICADO principal investigator
• Carlotta Gruppioni (INAF, Italy: MORFEO science team member
• Lex Kaper (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, co-chair): MOSAIC Board deputy chair
• Alessandro Marconi (Florence, Italy): ANDES principal investigator
• Roser Pello (LAM, France): MOSAIC principal investigator
• Niranjan Thatte (Oxford, UK): HARMONI principal investigator
• Eline Tolstoy (Groningen, The Netherlands); MICADO project scientist
• Elena Valenti (ESO, Germany): MORFEO ESO project scientist

Contact

francesca.annibali @ inaf.it, l.kaper @ uva.nl