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《美国复苏和再投资法案》（公法 111-5）资助的。在现代大型望远镜盛行的今天，小型望远镜仍然在积极地为我们关于宇宙及其成分的知识做出重大贡献，从伽马射线在宇宙边缘爆发到附近的恒星和太阳系天体。 在北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的 Daniel Reichart 博士的领导下，美国东南部的一个大学联盟组建了一个令人印象深刻的小型望远镜网络，该网络遍布全球。 最初设计的目的是快速跟踪“瞬态事件”（例如，由于恒星爆炸性的垂死挣扎而导致天空发生突然变化），他们的望远镜也被许多大学的专业研究人员和学生大量使用和东南部的大学以及中小学教育工作者及其学生。 Reichart 博士和他的团队现在正计划为网络添加新功能，扩大全球覆盖范围，以监测不断变化的天空。 光学望远镜当然在夜间工作效果最好，因此如果天文学家想要全天候监测天空中的物体，他们必须拥有遍布世界各地的望远镜。 为了确保覆盖范围，还需要拥有多个望远镜，以防某些地点天气恶劣。 美国国家科学基金会的主要研究仪器计划正在通过其天文科学部为新望远镜提供资金。