TESTI , Leonardo

AMBER is the near-infrared instrument of the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). With a spectral resolution up to 10000 in the 1.2-2.4 micron wavelength range, AMBER will offer the possibility to combine 3 beams from the VLTI array either 8-m or 1.8m telescopes. The instrument has been designed to bring high precision measurement and...

International audience

Due to the recent dramatic technological advances, infrared interferometry can now be applied to new classes of objects, resulting in exciting new science prospects, for instance, in the area of high-mass star formation. Although extensively studied at various wavelengths, the process through which massive stars form is still only poorly...

Circumstellar disks are an essential ingredient of the formation of low-mass stars. It is unclear, however, whether the accretion-disk paradigm can also account for the formation of stars more massive than about 10 solar masses, in which strong radiation pressure might halt mass infall. Massive stars may form by stellar merging, although more...

AMBER had first light in March 2004. The guaranteed time observations of the AMBER consortium (LAOG, MPIfR, OAA, OCA, UNSA) consists of 87 proposals ranging from cosmology, extragalactic studies, star formation, planetary system, late stages of stellar evolution to physical properties of stars. Some examples, AGN, evolved stars and hot stars...