Collaborative Research: Exploring the Nearest Stars on Solar System Scales

合作研究：探索太阳系尺度上最近的恒星

• 批准号: 1517413
• 负责人: Todd Henry
• 金额: $ 24.35万
• 依托单位: Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-10-01 至 2018-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1517413&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Exploring; Nearest; Stars

This project will explore the environments of more than 2000 of the nearest star systems to the Sun. The objectives are to (a) discover how unusual our Sun is in its stellar solitude, (b) understand how many stars of different types are multiples, (c) provide fundamental statistics that will drive our knowledge of how stars form, and (d) provide a list of stars where analogues of our Solar System might be found. The project allows us to place our own Sun in context in our Galaxy, answering the broad question, "How does our Sun compare to other stars?" It will also provide important information about the likelihood of habitable worlds. The project provides opportunities for graduate and undergraduate student training at both institutions, each of which includes significant fractions of minority students. Both institutions will develop supplemental observing programs for students and general public using local facilities, and they will integrate these with their educational programs.Two high-resolution imaging surveys will be completed using the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI), a unique speckle imaging system that provides diffraction-limited imaging in two colors simultaneously. Observations will primarily be taken at Lowell Observatory's 4.3-meter Discovery Channel Telescope and at the Gemini North 8.1-meter Telescope. The first survey will target more than 1500 stars within 25 parsecs with V magnitudes brighter than 16. Observing nearby stars with DSSI will enable mapping of their stellar environments down to separations smaller than the distance of Mercury to the Sun, even at the horizon of the sample. The results will provide crucial insight into the star formation process, and the statistics of stellar multiplicity will be the benchmark for other types of multiplicity studies, with an emphasis on the Solar System scales crucial for planet formation. The second survey will target more than a thousand K-dwarfs within 50 parsecs in an equatorial sample that can be observed from both the northern and southern hemispheres. Incorporating other techniques together with DSSI images, these stars will be surveyed for companions down to Jovian masses to provide a unique data set of companions spanning a mass range of 1000 for this specific spectral type, providing a legacy data set that can be referenced for decades to come.

该项目将探索2000多个与太阳的恒星系统的环境。目标是（a）发现我们的太阳在其恒星孤独中的不寻常，（b）了解不同类型的倍数是倍数的，（c）提供了基本的统计数据，这些统计数据将推动我们对恒星形成方式的了解，并且（d）提供了可以找到我们太阳能系统类似物的恒星列表。该项目使我们能够在银河系中放置自己的阳光，回答了一个广泛的问题：“我们的太阳与其他明星相比如何？” 它还将提供有关可居住世界的可能性的重要信息。该项目为两个机构的研究生和本科生培训提供了机会，每个机构都包括大量少数族裔学生的分数。 这两个机构将使用本地设施为学生和公众开发补充观察计划，并将这些计划与其教育计划相结合。两项高分辨率成像调查将使用差分斑点调查仪器（DSSI）完成，这是一种独特的Speckle Imaging，这是一种独特的Speckle Imaging系统，可以同时提供两种颜色的衍射成像。观察结果将主要在洛厄尔天文台的4.3米发现通道望远镜和双子座北8.1米望远镜上进行。第一次调查将在25个parsec中瞄准1500多个恒星，其幅度高于16的尺寸。观察附近的带有DSSI的恒星将使其恒星环境的映射到小于汞距离到太阳的距离，即使在样品的地平线上也是如此。结果将为恒星形成过程提供至关重要的见解，而恒星多样性的统计数据将是其他类型的多重性研究的基准，重点是太阳系对行星形成至关重要的尺度。第二项调查将在赤道样本中的50个parsec中瞄准一千多个warfs，可以从北半球和南半球观察到。将其他技术与DSSI图像结合在一起，将对这些恒星进行调查，以供与Jovian群众相伴，以提供独特的数据集，其中该特定光谱类型的质量范围为1000，提供了可以参考几十年来引用的旧数据集。