BlueMUSE is an optical seeing-limited, blue-optimised, medium spectral resolution, panoramic integral-field-spectrograph, to be installed on one of the telescopes of the VLT on Cerro Paranal (Chile). The project is an evolution of the technology used on the very successful VLT / MUSE instrument, with a similar architecture and many similar systems, but with a new and distinct science case enabled by its main characteristics:
a wavelength coverage 350 – 580 nm
an average spectral resolution R=4000
a field-of-view higher than 1arcmin²
BlueMUSE will offer new and unique science opportunities in many fields of astrophysics, beyond those possible with MUSE. Among the science goals available with this new instrument, it will survey large sample of massive stars in our galaxy and the Local Group, study ionized nebulae, starburst and low surface-brightness galaxies. At high redshift, it would allow us for the first time to detect the IGM unambiguously in emission, as well as study the evolution of the CGM properties near the peak of the Cosmic Star formation history.