Long Slit Intermediate-Resolution InfraRed Spectrograph (LIRIS)

First light: 15 February 2003.

Last commissioning: 

Participating organisations:  Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias is the main builder and designer. Other collaborating institutions are the UK Astronomy Technology Centre and the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes.

Description: LIRIS is a long-slit intermediate-resolution infrared spectrograph to be mounted on the Cassegrain focus of the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope (WHT).

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Scientific highlights:

• The Deep Impact Event at the ING Telescopes (2005)
• Highly Extinguished Supernovae in the Nuclear Regions of Starburst Galaxies (2005)
• The Least-Massive Brown Dwarfs in the Pleiades (2006)
• Brown Dwarfs and Isolated Planetary-Mass Objects Might Follow the Same Formation Process (2007)
• Earth's Transmission Spectrum from Lunar Eclipse Observations (2009)
• First Ground-based Near-infrared Direct Detection of an Extrasolar Planet (2009)