Building the Event Horizon Telescope: Observing Black Holes with Schwarzschild Radius Resolution

建造事件视界望远镜：用史瓦西半径分辨率观测黑洞

• 批准号: 1835254
• 负责人: Sheperd Doeleman
• 金额: $ 43.17万
• 依托单位: Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1835254&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Building; Event; Horizon; Telescope; Observing

There is a massive black hole at the center of our galaxy, and similar objects at the centers of other galaxies, objects that distort spacetime by the strength of their immense gravitational fields. Spatially, a black hole is phenomenally compact. Nonetheless, Dr. Doeleman and his colleagues, utilizing the combined millimeter-wave radio signals from an array of radiotelescopes located on different continents, will image the event horizon of a black hole. The combination of high frequency and long interferometer baselines will produce an unprecedented high spatial resolution, and this project presents a scientifically compelling way to utilize it.The project will develop broadband very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) instrumentation matched to the millimeter- and submillimeter-wave receivers now in use at radiotelescopes suitable for use in the intercontinental array. With commercially available digital signal processing devices incorporated into custom systems, the instrumentation to be built will achieve 8 GHz of bandwidth in each polarization. That broad bandwidth is critical for maximizing system sensitivity. The resulting VLBI network will achieve, at 1.3 mm wavelength, tens of microarcseconds of angular resolution on the sky. Earlier observations by this team have measured structure on the scale of the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole at the center of our galaxy, and this project plans to observe and image the actual black hole event horizon.The hardware developed under this program will be made available to the astronomy community. High-school teachers, undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows will be involved in the research program. Valuable hands-on training in instrumentation will be provided that will be valuable on other modern radiotelescopes. Funding for this project is being provided by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through its Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program.

我们银河系的中心有一个巨大的黑洞，其他星系中心的物体类似物体，这些物体因其巨大的引力场的强度而扭曲了时空。 在空间上，黑洞是惊人的。 尽管如此，Doeleman博士和他的同事利用位于不同大陆的一系列Radiotelescopes的组合毫米波无线电信号将图像黑洞的事件范围。 高频和较长干涉仪基线的组合将产生前所未有的高空间分辨率，并且该项目提出了一种具有科学上令人信服的方法来利用它。该项目将在与毫米 - 毫米 - 毫米 - 毫米 - 和亚毫米波匹配的宽带非常长的基线干涉（VLBI）仪器中，以适用于无线电级别的互动互动。 通过将商业可用的数字信号处理设备纳入自定义系统，要构建的仪器将在每个极化中实现8 GHz的带宽。 该广泛的带宽对于最大化系统灵敏度至关重要。 所得的VLBI网络将在1.3毫米波长下实现数十个微弧形的角度分辨率。 该团队的较早观察结果已经在我们银河系中心的黑洞的施瓦茨柴尔德半径的规模上衡量了结构，该项目计划观察和图像实际的黑洞事件地平线。该计划下开发的硬件将提供给天文学界。 高中老师，本科生，研究生和博士后研究员将参与研究计划。 将提供有价值的仪器动手培训，这些培训将在其他现代辐射镜上很有价值。 NSF的天文学科学部通过其先进的技术和仪器计划提供了为该项目提供的资金。