MAVIS: sharper than JWST, deeper than HS

MAVIS (MCAO Assisted Visible Imager and Spectrograph) is a forthcoming instrument for the ESO’s VLT Adaptive Optics Facility, currently starting Phase B. It is made of two main parts: a Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) system, that cancels the image blurring induced by atmospheric turbulence in the visible on a large field, and its post focal instrumentation, a wide field imager and a IFU spectrograph, both covering the visible part of the light spectrum. MAVIS has the potential to be an extremely novel and powerful facility: with an angular resolution of 15 mas (close to 50 times better than the seeing limited conditions) and a powerful and sensitive post-focal instrumentation, MAVIS will be instrumental to bring answers to a number of astrophysical science questions. In particular, thanks to its high sensitivity and unparalleled spatial resolution, it will survey unique details of the dynamics, ISM and stellar populations of high-z galaxies and of early galaxy assembly.