MATISSE, the Multi AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment, is foreseen as a mid-infrared imaging spectro-interferometer combining up to four UT/AT beams at the VLTI. It will measure closure phase relations and thus offer an efficient capability for image reconstruction with the VLTI.
MATISSE will be the first instrument to allow imaging in the 8 - 13 micron wavelength range with a spatial resolution of up to 10 mas. This imaging capability will permit to extend the astrophysical potential of the VLTI by overcoming the ambiguities often existing in the interpretation of pure visibility measurements. We will present science programs for different classes of objects for which a qualitatively new level of understanding is predicted, based on previous indirect observational and theoretical constraints.