High Angular Resolution Studies of Young Stars

在过去的十年里，在观测星际气体和尘埃云以及在其中许多星云中形成冷密团块的新星方面取得了很大进展。一个悬而未决的问题是“这些目前正在形成的恒星中有没有获得类似于我们自己的行星系统的？”这个问题没有答案，因为到目前为止，观测者缺乏角分辨率来探测星际距离上的行星或行星前体物体。首席研究人员建议使用月球掩星来克服这一困难，他认为这将充分提高角分辨率，使他能够观察正在形成的行星系统。

Much progress has been made during the past decade in observations of interstellar clouds of gas and dust and of the formation of new stars that takes place in cold, dense clumps in many of these clouds. The question that is unanswered is "Do any of these currently forming stars acquire planetary systems similar to our own?" The question is unanswered because up to now observers lacked the angular resolution to detect planets or planetary precursor object across interstellar distances. The Principal Investigator proposes to overcome this difficulty by using lunar occultations of star forming regions, which he thinks will increase the angular resolution sufficiently to allow him to observe planetary systems in the making.