Charting the Future of Stellar and Exoplanets Spectroscopy (CHASES 2026)

Looking ahead, a new generation of instruments (some of which already operational like ESPRESSO and DESI) will soon start (WEAVE, 4MOST), is planned (MOONS), or proposed — from ultra-stable high-resolution spectrographs to massively multiplexed facilities on large telescopes- which are pushing the boundaries of both precision and scale.

These developments will enable the study of fainter and more distant systems with unprecedented detail and/or statistical power, opening new windows in our understanding of the exoplanet population, galactic archaeology, and fundamental physics. Indeed, by September 2026 we expect that many new results will be already emerging, while new instruments, such as 4MOST, will be starting operations and possibly delivering early science. The new instrumentation is also introducing new challenges, such as calibration at the cm/s level, uniform abundance scales across surveys, use of artificial intelligence for data analysis.

This conference will explore all these themes, bringing together communities working on instrumentation, stellar and exoplanet astrophysics, and chemical evolution. Some time will also be dedicated to complementary topics that benefit from high-precision spectroscopy. The conference will serve as a launchpad for reviewing the scientific landscape, new challenges, and priorities. 2026 indeed represents an interesting point in ESO’s timeline: a moment when the legacy of VLT instrumentation is since many years at its scientific peak, while the astronomical community is looking ahead to the next generation of telescopes and spectrographs, including the upcoming MOONS and CUBES, and, of course, the Extremely Large Telescope. 2026 is also important for the more distant future, considering the call for new VLT instrumentation within the VLT2030 roadmap and the Expanding Horizons initiative.