Overall science goals and top level AO requirements for the E-ELT

European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany

^a e-mail: mkissler@eso.org

Abstract

The E-ELT is the most ambitious of the ELTs that are planed. Its main characteristic is to be an adaptive telescope, i.e. AO is included in the telescope design. The science case for the E-ELT is largely driven by a diffraction limited image quality of the telescope. The science goals span from direct imaging and characterisation of exo-planets to studying the most distant objects in the universe. The science cases imply a long term deployment at the telescope of many AO flavours (ground-layer AO, single conjugated AO, laser tomography AO, multi-conjugated AO, multi-object AO, extreme AO). While some of these are covered by the telescope, others will require post-focal AO modules feeding the instruments.