On January 30, 2026, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) signed an agreement to build the Blue Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (BlueMUSE), a new instrument for ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT). Thumbnail credit © ESO
This agreement marks an important first step in the development of BlueMUSE, which will offer astronomers new and unique scientific opportunities. BlueMUSE's advanced technology will enable detailed observations within our galaxy, facilitating the study of targets as varied as massive stars, nebulae, and comets. It will also revolutionize the study of the distant universe by enabling the detection of diffuse matter in the space between galaxies and helping us understand how matter moves there.
Earlier that day, Xavier Barcons, Director General of ESO, and Céline Reylé, Deputy Director for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), signed the BlueMUSE agreement at ESO headquarters in Garching, Germany. The CNRS, through the Lyon Astrophysics Research Center (CRAL – CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1), is the institution leading the instrument consortium, which comprises several European and Australian institutes. Also present were the French scientific and academic attaché for Southern Germany, Emmanuel Delille, the BlueMUSE scientific manager, Johan Richard, and the project manager, Rémi Giroud, both from CRAL, as well as other dignitaries from ESO and the BlueMUSE consortium, to mark the next stage in the construction of the instrument.
Based on the proven technology of the MUSE instrument installed on the VLT, BlueMUSE is a full-field spectrograph. It is designed not only to capture a 2D image of a target (or multiple targets), but also to break down the light into its different colors or wavelengths at each pixel, thus producing a complete 3D dataset containing detailed information about the observed object.