KMOS. Why? What? Who? How?
KMOS at the time of first light:
The instrument is mounted on the Nasmyth B focus of VLT UT1.

Credit: ESO/G. Lombardi.

KMOS (K-Band Multi-Object Spectrometer) is a near-infrared multi-object spectrometer that was built by a British-German consortium for the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It was integrated and installed as one of several second generation instruments on the Very Large Telecope (VLT) at Cerro Paranal (Chile, figure below).

KMOS is capable of delivering spatially resolved spectral data of up to 24 scientific targets simultaneously by means of deployable Integral Field Units, each resolving a square field of 2.8x2.8 arcseconds into 14x14 spatial pixels.

KMOS is in regular operation since 2013.

The four Unit Telescopes of ESO VLT at Cerro Paranal:
KMOS is installed at UT1 (left).

Credit: ESO/F. Kamphues.

The USM has participated in the project by developing and building the instrument software and electronics.


Last modified: 2022-07-06 (Michael Wegner)