The OSIRIS instrument at the Big Canary Telescope (GTC) was able to conduct the most in-depth survey of galaxies as part of the OTELO project. New information can change our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies.
OTELO is the deepest census of galaxies with emission lines. This directory holds over 11,000 galaxies. At present, the GTC is considered the world's largest optical and IR telescope with a main mirror with a diameter of 10.4 m. Therefore, it is ideally suited for observing deep space.
OTELO was aimed at finding a hypothetical population of galaxies that no one had previously found. These are objects that could not be fixed in other galactic studies, but which manifest themselves in OSIRIS images using custom filters. They allow you to see galaxies with emission lines pointing to ionized gas. Such a gas can be ionized by stars with massiveness greater than solar or powerful processes around supermassive black holes in galactic centers. But the share of these galaxies does not emit enough light to appear in the reviews of simple filters. Without a complete list, it would be difficult to study the properties of galaxies.
OSIRIS follow the sky in the optical range of the spectrum (visible light), although it extends on the edge to the near-IR region and UV light. From the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, this device is able to find a “ghostly” galactic population whose analysis risks changing the understanding of the processes of creation and development of galaxies.
