Completing the Galactic Plane Infrared Polarization Survey (GPIPS)

完成银河平面红外偏振巡天 (GPIPS)

• 批准号: 0907790
• 负责人: Dan Clemens
• 金额: $ 89.66万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-01 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0907790&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Completing; Galactic; Plane; Infrared; Polarization

The magnetic field threading the Galaxy's interstellar medium (ISM) is poorly revealed and its roles in cloud and star formation are unclear. Dr. Dan Clemens (Boston University) and his team are addressing these problems using a powerful instrument (Mimir, a near-infrared wide-field imaging polarimeter) coupled with substantial observing time (about 50 nights per year, with key project status) on the 1.8-meter Perkins telescope outside Flagstaff, Arizona. Presently, the team is about midway through the telescopic observations comprising the Galactic Plane Infrared Polarization Survey (GPIPS) and, through this award, will complete all GPIPS observations over the next four years. GPIPS expands existing optical/infrared (OIR) probes of the ISM magnetic field by four to five orders of magnitude, to about 500,000 stellar polarizations, and reveals the field five times more distant than seen before using OIR methods, to and beyond the nearest spiral arm and through dark clouds to a visual extinction of 25 magnitudes. GPIPS represents a huge increase in the data available for probing the Milky Way's magnetic field. The inner midplane region offers a wealth of correlative data concerning the stellar targets, as well as revealing a wide variety of distinctly different environments in the diffuse and dense ISM. The new magnetic field insight GPIPS will uncover will help test models across many size scales to gauge the role of the magnetic field in a wide range of ISM environments in the Galaxy.The public release of high-quality, well-calibrated data products will allow other astronomers to mine the transformative GPIPS data for new discoveries, and to bring vital insight to other studies. The methods and approaches pioneered by GPIPS will guide future large-scale and follow-up studies. During the first three years of the survey, GPIPS and Mimir have had major impacts on the career development of research students, comprising the capstone astronomical experience for about 30 Boston University students to date, and enabling visitors and collaborators to obtain new data for a wide variety of projects. The team's suite of publically-available software tools and web sites make access to, and science with, Mimir data easy and efficient. Over the next four years, the team will leverage this base to higher levels of impact by developing and serving out a series of webcasts and podcasts, both for the general public on topics such as infrared astronomy, polarimetry, and magnetic fields, and for the research community (the GPIPS data products, the Mimir instrument and software). Finally, members of the team will work with the Boston University Scientific Visualization Center to develop exportable tools and/or shows to view and interact with the three-dimensional decomposition of the GPIPS data set and its relationships to other tracers of the ISM.

磁场螺纹螺纹的星际介质（ISM）揭示了很差，并且其在云和恒星形成中的作用尚不清楚。 丹·克莱门斯（Dan Clemens）博士（波士顿大学）和他的团队正在使用强大的乐器（Mimir，近红外的宽场成像偏光仪）解决这些问题，并在1.8米米珀斯托克斯（Perkins terkins）上的大量观察时间（每年约50晚，具有关键的项目状态）在亚利桑那州弗拉格斯塔夫（Flagstaff）以外的1.8米米米尔珀金斯（Perkins）上。目前，该团队大约在望远镜观察中进行，包括银河飞机红外极化调查（GPIPS），并且通过此奖项将完成未来四年中所有GPIPS的观察结果。 GPIP将ISM磁场的现有光学/红外（OIR）探针扩展到4到5个数量级，至约500,000个恒星极化，并揭示了该场的距离，比使用OIR方法，到最近的螺旋臂以及通过近距离螺旋臂以及25幅幅度的乌云范围的距离五倍。 GPIPS代表可用于探测银河系磁场的数据大大增加。 内平面区域提供了有关恒星目标的大量相关数据，并揭示了弥漫性和密集ISM中各种各样的截然不同的环境。 新的磁场洞察力GPIP将会有助于测试许多尺寸尺度的测试模型，以评估磁场在银河系中广泛的ISM环境中的作用。公众发布高质量的，精心校准的数据产品将允许其他天文学家挖掘新发现的变革性GPIPS数据，并为其他研究带来重要的研究。 GPIP开创的方法和方法将指导未来的大规模和后续研究。 在调查的前三年中，GPIPS和Mimir对研究学生的职业发展产生了重大影响，包括大约30名波士顿大学学生的Capstone天文经验，并使访客和合作者能够获得各种项目的新数据。 该团队的公开可用软件工具和网站的套件使Mimir Data的访问和科学易于高效。在接下来的四年中，该团队将通过开发和提供一系列网络广播和播客，将此基础提高到更高的影响力，包括红外天文学，偏光仪和磁场等主题，以及研究社区（GPIPS数据产品，MIMIR仪器和软件）。 最后，团队的成员将与波士顿大学科学可视化中心合作，开发可导出的工具和/或表演，以查看和与GPIPS数据集的三维分解以及与ISM其他示踪剂的关系进行交互。