Research news
WST Special Session at EAS 2026
The Special Session will take place as part of the Annual Meeting of the European Astronomical Society (EAS). This year, the main goal is to highlight and discuss with the astronomical community the strong synergies that the Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST) will have with other major observatories in the 2040s. Abstract deadline is March 3rd.
The programme will include presentations about the WST concept and science and also invited speakers discussing the scientific synergy of WST with missions and projects covering topics in multi-messenger astronomy, time-domain science, science from space-based observatories, and telescopes in the radio domain.
WST is designed as a 12m aperture telescope with simultaneous operation of a large field-of-view (3 sq. degree), high-multiplex (30,000) multi-object spectrograph (MOS) with two spectral resolutions (R~40,000 and 4,000) and a giant 3x3 arcmin integral field spectrograph (IFS).
R. Smiljanic, PI of the SAGA Team is part of the SOC of the Special Session. SAGA Team members are involved in the WST Science Team and R. Smiljanic is co-leading the working group responsible for the exoplanet, stellar, and Galactic science case. The WST project is funded by the European Union under Grant ID 101183153 awarded within the HORIZON-INFRA-2024-DEV-01 call.
Gaia Symposium at EAS 2026
The symposium will take place as part of the Annual Meeting of the European Astronomical Society (EAS). Abstract deadline is March 3rd. The symposium will cover a wide range of science where Gaia has a role to play:
- Gaia DR3: Highlight Science including a review of recent major science highlights from Gaia DR3, Gaia FPR and science discovery enabled by Gaia, with attention to the potential of Gaia DR4 and look ahead to Gaia DR5.
- Gaia / GREAT/ MW-Gaia / Gaia Unlimited Status plus update on GaiaNIR status towards Voyage 2050/ L5
- Gaia EDR3/DR3/FPR: Highlight Science (The Milky Way as a Galaxy)
- Gaia EDR3/DR3/FPR: Highlight Science (The Birth, Life and Death of Stars)
- Gaia EDR3/DR3/FPR: Highlight Science (from Solar system to reference frames)
- Gaia networking and ground based synergies with Gaia
- Lunch session with an update on the Gaia Archive and Data Access, activities within the MW-Gaia Doctoral Network and also an opportunity for poster presenters to deliver a 'lightening' talk of their (e-)poster
R. Smiljanic, PI of the SAGA Team is part of the SOC of the Symposium in connection to his participation in the Gaia Science Team.
Third issue of the WST Chronicle
This third issue of the WST Chronicle was published in January 23, 2026. This issue includes a contribution co-authored by R. Smiljanic describing the potential of WST to contribute to exoplanet, stellar and Galactic science in the 2040s. Among other articles, there is also a discussion about synergies of WST with other future facilities, such as the ELT, the Einstein Telescope, and SKA.
The Wide-Field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST) is a project to build a 12m telescope fully dedicated to multi-object spectroscopy. It will have a large field-of-view (> 3 sq deg) and combine in simultaneous operation high‐multiplex spectrographs of both low‐ and high‐resolution and a giant panoramic integral field spectrograph.
SAGA Team members are involved in the WST Science Team and R. Smiljanic is co-leading the working group responsible for the exoplanet, stellar, and Galactic science case. The WST project is funded by the European Union under Grant ID 101183153 awarded within the HORIZON-INFRA-2024-DEV-01 call.