MRI: Development of a Fiber-Linked Mobile Telescope Facility for the CHARA Array

MRI：为 CHARA 阵列开发光纤连接移动望远镜设施

• 批准号: 2018862
• 负责人: Douglas Gies
• 金额: $ 250.59万
• 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: 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=2018862&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Development; Fiber; Linked; Mobile

Most stars are so distant that even the largest telescopes show them as no more than dots. To see the stars close up would require conventional telescopes that are too large and too expensive to construct. Instead, astronomers use a collection of smaller and distributed telescopes. These work together like a single telescope as large as the separation of the components. One of the best of these is the CHARA Array located at Mount Wilson Observatory in California. The CHARA Array has six telescopes arranged in pairs in fixed locations along three arms. Each telescope sends starlight through long aluminum tubes into a central laboratory for analysis. Each telescope pair is sensitive to a specific size and direction of an object in the sky. Thus, the CHARA Array works best for a size range that is related to the fixed telescope locations. Other sites are needed at larger and smaller separations to study smaller and larger stars. This program will enable these new sites by adding a mobile telescope to the Array. The movable telescope will send starlight through fiber optic cables instead of a bulky tube. This system of seven telescopes will let astronomers make detailed maps of stellar surfaces. This will help place our own Sun within the context of stellar mass, age, and magnetic activity. It will also help train young scientists in the technologies needed to explore outer space.Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) operates an optical/near-infrared interferometric array at Mt Wilson Observatory in California. The CHARA Array has six 1 m aperture telescopes in a Y-shaped configuration providing 15 baselines from 34 to 331 meters. With the number and size of its telescopes, the length of its baselines, and the range of wavelength covered by its beam combiners, the CHARA Array is a uniquely powerful facility for milliarcsecond imaging. The goal of this proposal is to develop a new instrument that will expand the spatial dynamic range of the CHARA Array by a factor of ten. The CHARA Michelson Array Pathfinder (CMAP) instrument will be a mobile telescope connected to the Array telescopes through a novel application of fiber optics technology. By placing the mobile telescope close to the pair of telescopes with the smallest baseline, the CMAP instrument will allow us to map the surfaces of large stars, and moving the mobile telescope to distant locations will provide the means to measure details of small stars. This exploration of stars using fiber optics for interferometry will provide the means to map stellar surfaces in unprecedented detail. The CMAP instrument will help train young scientists in the technologies needed for future interferometers on Earth and in space.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.

大多数恒星非常遥远，即使最大的望远镜也将它们显示为点。 要看到恒星的闭合将需要传统的望远镜，这些望远镜太大且太贵而无法构造。 取而代之的是，天文学家使用较小和分布式望远镜的集合。这些像单个望远镜一样大，与组件的分离一样大。其中最好的之一是位于加利福尼亚州威尔逊山天文台的Chara阵列。 Chara阵列有六个望远镜在沿三个武器的固定位置成对排列。每个望远镜通过长铝管将星光发送到中央实验室进行分析。 每个望远镜对对天空中物体的特定尺寸和方向敏感。 因此，Chara阵列最适合与固定望远镜位置相关的尺寸范围。在较大和较小的分离中需要其他站点来研究较小和较大的恒星。该程序将通过在数组中添加移动望远镜来启用这些新站点。可移动的望远镜将通过光纤电缆而不是笨重的管发送星光。这个七个望远镜的系统将使天文学家制作出恒星表面的详细地图。 这将有助于将自己的阳光放在恒星质量，年龄和磁性活动的背景下。 它还将帮助培训年轻科学家探索外太空所需的技术。盖尔教大学高角度分辨率天文学中心（CHARA）在加利福尼亚州威尔逊山天文台运营着一个光学/近红外干涉阵列。 Chara阵列在Y形配置中具有六个1 M的光圈望远镜，可提供15个基线，从34到331米。 Chara Array凭借其望远镜的数量和大小，其基线的长度以及被梁组合器覆盖的波长范围，是Milliarcsecond Imaging的独特功能。该提案的目的是开发一种新工具，将Chara阵列的空间动态范围扩大十倍。 Chara Michelson Array Pathfinder（CMAP）仪器将是通过新颖的光纤技术应用连接到阵列望远镜的移动望远镜。通过将移动望远镜放置在靠近最小基线的望远镜的近距离，CMAP仪器将使我们能够映射大恒星的表面，并将移动望远镜移至远处的位置，将提供衡量小星星的细节的手段。 对恒星使用光纤进行干涉测量法的探索将为绘制前所未有的细节绘制恒星表面的手段。 CMAP工具将帮助培训年轻科学家在地球和太空中所需的技术所需的技术。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得通过评估来提供支持。