MRI-R2 Consortium Acquisition: Targeted Expansions of the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network's Wavelength, Geographic, and User-Community Footprints

MRI-R2 联盟收购：有针对性地扩展天网机器人望远镜网络的波长、地理和用户社区足迹

• 批准号: 0959447
• 负责人: Daniel Reichart
• 金额: $ 179.59万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-03-15 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0959447&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; R2; Consortium; Acquisition; Targeted

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).In this day of modern large telescopes, small telescopes are still actively making significant contributions to our knowledge about the universe and its constituents, from Gamma Ray Bursts at the edge of the universe to nearby stars and solar system bodies. A consortium of colleges in the southeastern United States has assembled an impressive network of small telescopes spread around the globe under the leadership of Dr. Daniel Reichart of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Originally designed for the specific purpose of rapidly following up on "transient events" - sudden changes on the sky due to the explosive death throes of stars for example - their telescopes are also heavily used by both professional researchers and their students at a number of colleges and universities in the southeast as well as by elementary and secondary educators and their students. Dr. Reichart and his team are now planning to add new capabilities to the network, providing increased coverage around the globe to monitor our changing skies. Optical telescopes work best at night of course, so if astronomers want to monitor objects in the sky around the clock, they must have telescopes spread around the world. To be sure of the coverage, it is also necessary to have multiple telescopes in case the weather is bad at some of the locations. The National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation program is providing the funding for the new telescopes through its Division of Astronomical Sciences.

该奖项是根据2009年的《美国复苏与重新投资法》（公法111-5）资助的。在现代大型望远镜的这一天，小型望远镜仍在积极地为我们对宇宙及其成分的知识做出了重大贡献，从宇宙边缘到附近的恒星和太阳系系统的gamma Ray爆发。 美国东南部的一个大学联盟在北卡罗来纳大学教堂山的丹尼尔·雷卡特（Daniel Reichart）博士的领导下，在全球范围内汇集了一个令人印象深刻的小型望远镜网络。 最初设计的目的是为了快速跟踪“瞬态事件” - 例如，由于恒星的爆炸性死亡束缚，天空的突然变化 - 他们的望远镜在东南部的许多学院以及基础和二级教育者及其学生及其学生及其学生及其学生及其学生及其学生及其学生及其学生也大量使用了他们的望远镜。 Reichart博士和他的团队现在正计划在网络中增加新的功能，从而在全球范围内增加了覆盖范围，以监视我们不断变化的天空。 当然，光学望远镜在晚上最有效，因此，如果天文学家想监视全天候天空中的物体，则必须在世界各地散布望远镜。 为了确保覆盖范围，如果某些位置的天气恶劣，也必须拥有多个望远镜。 国家科学基金会的主要研究仪器计划通过其天文科学部为新望远镜提供了资金。