The 4MOST consortium has been selected by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) to provide the ESO community with a fibre-fed spectroscopic survey facility on the VISTA telescope with a large enough field-of-view to survey a large fraction of the southern sky in a few years. The facility will be able to simultaneously obtain spectra of ~2400 objects distributed over an hexagonal field-of-view of 4.2 square degrees. This high multiplex of 4MOST, combined with its high spectral resolution, will enable dete
This exceptional instrument enables many science goals, but the design is especially intended to complement three key all-sky, space-based observatories of prime European interest: Gaia, Euclid, and eROSITA. Such a facility has been identified as of critical importance in numerous European strategic documents ( Bode et al., 2008 ; de Zeeuw & Molster 2007 ; Drew et al. 2010 ; Turon et al. 2008 ) and forms the perfect complement to the many all-sky survey projects around the world.
4MOST is currently in its Manufacturing, Assembly, Integration and Test Phase with an expected start of full science operations in Q2 2024.