Hector([1,2,3]) will be the new massively-multiplexed integral field spectroscopy
(IFS) instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in Australia and the next
main dark-time instrument for the observatory. Based on the success of the SAMI instrument,
which is undertaking a 3400-galaxy survey, the integral field unit (IFU) imaging fibre
bundle (hexabundle) technology under-pinning SAMI is being improved to a new innovative
design for Hector. The distribution of hexabundle angular sizes is matched to the
galaxy survey properties in order to image 90% of galaxies out to 2 effective radii.
50-100 of these IFU imaging bundles will be positioned by 'starbug' robots across
a new 3-degree field corrector top end to be purpose-built for the AAT. Many thousand
fibres will then be fed into new replicable spectrographs. Fundamentally new science
will be achieved compared to existing instruments due to Hector's wider field of view
(3 degrees), high positioning efficiency using starbugs, higher spectroscopic resolution
(R=3000-5500 from 3727-7761, with a possible redder extension later) and large IFUs
(up to 30 arcsec diameter with 61-217 fibre cores). A 100,000 galaxy IFS survey with
Hector will decrypt how the accretion and merger history and large-scale environment
made every galaxy different in its morphology and star formation history. The high
resolution, particularly in the blue, will make Hector the only instrument to be able
to measure higher-order kinematics for galaxies down to much lower velocity dispersion
than in current large IFS galaxy surveys, opening up a wealth of new nearby galaxy
science.
