MICADO instrument (artist's impression)

MICADO, also known as the Multi-Adaptive Optics Imaging CamerA for Deep Observations, is one of the first-light instruments for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT).

It will be a powerful tool in many areas of astronomy, such as measuring the masses of the central black holes of nearby galaxies from the velocities of their stars, and observing high-redshift galaxies to calculate their ages, chemical makeup and histories. The instrument will also obtain spectra of supernovae produced by the first generation of massive stars in the Universe.