unVEil the darknesS of The gAlactic buLgE (VESTALE)

Understand

The main aim of this experiment is to provide a complete census of old (t > 10 Gyr, RR Lyrae, type II Cepheids, red horizontal branch), intermediate age (red clump, Miras) and young (classical Cepheids) stellar tracers across the Galactic Bulge.

• To fully exploit the unique photometric quality of LSST images, we plan to perform a Shallow minisurvey (ugrizy, -20 < l < 20 deg, -15 < b < 10 deg) and a Deep minisurvey (izy, -20 < l < 20 deg, -3 < b < 3 deg).
• The former one is aimed at constraining the 3D structure of the galactic Bulge across the four quadrants, and in particular, the transition between inner and outer Bulge.
• The u,g,r,i,z,y LSST bands provide fundamental diagnostics to constrain the evolutionary properties of low and intermediate-mass stars when moving from a metal-poor to a metal-rich regime.