I will describe ANDES (ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph) the optical-infrared High-Resolution Spectrograph of the ELT, formerly known as ELT-HIRES, which will start the construction phase in 2022 to arrive at the telescope in early 2030. The project is carried out by an international consortium composed of 33 institutes from 13 countries. I will present an overview of the project, describing science cases and the baseline design. The top science cases will be detecting life signatures from exoplanet atmospheres, tests on the stability of Nature’s fundamental couplings, and the direct detection of cosmic acceleration. However, the science requirements of these science cases will enable many other ground-breaking ones. The baseline design, which allows fulfilling the top science cases, consists of a modular fiber-fed cross-dispersed echelle spectrograph providing a simultaneous range of 0.4-1.8 µm with a goal of 0.35-2.4 µm, at a resolution of 100,000 and with several observing modes. The spectrograph will be equipped with both seeing- and diffraction-limited observing modes, the latter being characterized by a unique high-resolution IFU, capable of a simultaneous wavelength coverage of 1-1.8 µm. Finally, I will conclude by presenting the future development of the project and the path to construction.
Prof. Alessandro Marconi is a professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department of the University of Florence, Italy, and the Principal Investigator (PI) of the upcoming ANDES, the High-Resolution Spectrograph of the ELT. From 1994 to 1997 he was a Ph.D. student at the University of Florence and from 1996 to 1997 he was also a research assistant at the Space Telescope Science Institute. He obtained his Ph.D. in Astronomy in May 1998 from the University of Florence. His Ph.D. thesis was awarded the "Livio Gratton" prize in 1999. He has been a member of various international committees; in particular, from 2009 to 2014 he has been appointed as the Italian representative at the Scientific and Technical Committee (STC) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and he has been chair from 2012 to 2014. He is an expert in Active Galactic Nuclei, supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei with more than 20,000 citations, and an h-index of 75+. This colloquium is a part of the activities commemorating "75 years of India's Independence: Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav" at ARIES.