Fast Transients, Superflares and Exoplanet Habitability: Exploring the Minute-Cadence Sky with the Evryscope Fast Transient Engine

快速瞬变、超级耀斑和系外行星宜居性：使用 Evryscope 快速瞬变引擎探索分钟节奏的天空

• 批准号: 2009645
• 负责人: Nicholas Law
• 金额: $ 60.64万
• 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: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2009645&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Fast; Transients; Superflares; Exoplanet; Habitability; Fast; Transients; Superflares; Exoplanet; Habitability

This project will observe the entire night sky to search for short time scale changes (less than two minutes) in the brightness of objects using small telescopes located in the northern and southern hemispheres. The researchers will develop software to detect these changes in real time and send alerts to other astronomers to enable them to follow up with their own observations. The project will study giant flares on stars that could impact planets in orbit about them, and also to study the rate of flashes that are the result of materials being burnt up in the earth's atmosphere. Other astronomers will be helped by receiving alerts to such changes in the sky. The scientists involved in this project are also developing a planetarium exhibit to provide the public with information on the evolving field of time resolved astronomy.Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will conduct a systematic investigation of the entire rapid transient sky using Evryscopes that will be coordinated with spectroscopic observations using the SOAR Telescope. The Evryscope telescopes, coupled with the Evryscope Fast Transit Engine (EFTE), a newly-developed low-latency transient-detection pipeline, are capable of searching for rapid transient events over 16,500 square degrees of the sky every two minutes. This will be coupled with a machine-learning vetting system that will reduce false positives to low levels. This new capability will enable the high-speed detection and follow-up for events such as superflares. These are giant stellar flares that have serious, but as-yet poorly-constrained, effects on the habitability of planets around cool stars. Additionally, the researchers will perform the first detailed characterization of transient orbital-debris fast-flashes, which form an important foreground for high cadence sky surveys.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目将观察整个夜空，以使用位于北半球和南半球的小型望远镜的物体的亮度进行短时尺度变化（不到两分钟）。研究人员将开发软件以实时检测这些变化，并向其他天文学家发送警报，以使他们能够跟进自己的观察结果。 该项目将研究恒星上的巨型耀斑，这些恒星可能影响轨道上的行星，并研究闪光的速率，这是地球大气中燃烧的材料的结果。 其他天文学家将获得对天空中这种变化的警报的帮助。 参与该项目的科学家还正在开发一个天文馆展览，以向公众提供有关不断发展的时间领域的信息。 Evryscope望远镜，再加上新开发的低延迟瞬态检测管道的Evryscope快速运输引擎（EFTE），能够每两分钟每两分钟搜索16,500平方英尺的快速瞬态事件。 这将与机器学习审查系统相结合，该系统将误报降低到低水平。这种新功能将使超级流域等事件的高速检测和随访。 这些是巨大的恒星耀斑，对凉爽恒星周围行星的可居住性的影响很严重，但尚未受到影响。此外，研究人员将对瞬态轨道界快速闪烁进行首次详细表征，这构成了高节奏天空调查的重要前景。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准来通过评估来支持的。