doi.eso.org

• Brandl, Bernhard [Leiden University, the Netherlands; Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU Delft, the Netherlands]
• Bettonvil, Felix [Leiden University, the Netherlands]
• van Boekel, Roy [Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany]
• Glauser, Adrian [Department of Physics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland]
• Quanz, Sascha [Department of Physics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland]
• Absil, Olivier [STAR Institute, Université de Liège, Belgium]
• Amorim, António [Faculdade de Ciencias da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal]
• Feldt, Markus [Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany]
• Glasse, Alistair [UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Edinburgh, UK]
• Güdel, Manuel [Department of Astrophysics, University of Vienna, Austria]
• Ho, Paul [Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan]
• Labadie, Lucas [I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Germany]
• Meyer, Michael [Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA]
• Pantin, Eric [CEA Saclay, IRFU, Gif-sur-Yvette, France]
• van Winckel, Hans [Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, KU Leuven, Belgium]
• The METIS Consortium

The Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph (METIS) will provide the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) with a unique window to the thermal- and mid-infrared (3–13 µm). Its single-conjugate adaptive optics (SCAO) system will enable high contrast imaging and integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopy (R ~ 100 000) at the diffraction limit of the ELT. This article describes the science drivers, conceptual design, observing modes, and expected performance of METIS.