The main science goals of the VISTA Magellanic Survey (VMC) survey are the determination of the spatially resolved star formation history (SFH) and the three-dimensional (3D) geometry of the system. The VMC survey will reach sources 6 mag fainter compared to the 2MASS and DENIS surveys which sample down to only upper red giant branch stars. VMC data will include the entire red giant branch population, short period variables and in particular old RR Lyrae stars, down to the oldest main sequence turn-off stars. These and other science goals that will be addressed with VMC data are described below. The VMC survey is strongly linked and complementary to other spectroscopic and photometric surveys of the Magellanic system, which will benefit from each other, providing a new, complete and absolutely unique view of this system.
For more information see the VMC home page.