E-ELT/METIS

The Mid-infrared E-ELT Imager and Spectrograph (METIS) will be one of the first three scientific instruments on the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). It will be the only instrument to cover the thermal/mid-infrared wavelength range from 3-19 μm. METIS offers a number of scientifically important observing modes, including diffraction-limited imaging, low resolution slit spectroscopy, coronagraphy, and high resolution (R ˜ 100,000) integral field spectroscopy at very high sensitivity. This paper gives a brief summary of METIS and focuses on its unique discovery space in the area of protoplanetary disks, where METIS is quite complementary to ALMA and JWST