Robotic Photometry of Magnetically Active Stars

拟议的计划包括两个研究工作： 太阳系的光度变化和磁活动的研究 太阳型恒星;和系统的调查 色球活动恒星中斑点的影响。 作为 前一个项目的参与者，一位天文学家和一位 田纳西州立大学的工程师和几个少数民族学生 大学将建造和操作一个0.8米的机器人 帕萨迪纳附近威尔逊山天文台望远镜， 加州。 目标是深入了解短期 以及太阳活动的长期行为，特别是 太阳的磁性和光度会随着时间的推移而变化， 几十年到几个世纪，通过研究太阳能类型的 恒星在短短几年的时间间隔内发生的变化。 对磁活动演化的进一步认识 在太阳的整个主序星期内 可以通过研究其他低主序星来获得 不同的质量和年龄。 这项详细的研究 恒星的磁场和光度变化会产生 对物理学的理解 太阳-恒星联系的原理和评估 太阳潜能的不确定性和真正重要性 全球平均气温变化模型的影响， 到目前为止，他们对全球变暖的预测是基于 假设太阳是恒定的。 结合光谱学和光度学， 斑点（即它们是否由一个大的黑暗 区域，如怀疑，或几个较小的黑暗区域关闭 将由另一组天文学家决定 和少数民族学生。 这是因为关于黑暗的信息 色球活跃的太阳型恒星上的斑点 经历了一场革命， 自动望远镜的观测结果越来越多。 这些 数据将允许识别许多单独的点， 从它们的出现到消亡 的结果 科学家们最终将能够 来了解这些斑点的性质与 太阳黑子的研究，来发现色球活跃的恒星 10 - 30%的表面被黑暗阻挡 区域，以评估磁光斑的影响（如果有的话） 对这些恒星光度的影响， 这种非常活跃的恒星确实有活动周期， 太阳周期。

The proposed program consists of two research efforts: An investigation of luminosity changes and magnetic activity in solar-type stars; and an investigation of the systematic effects of spots in chromospherically active stars. As participants in the former project, an astronomer and an engineer and several minority students at Tennessee State University will construct and operate a 0.8-m robotic telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California. The objective is to gain insight into the short and long-term behavior of solar activity, especially how the magnetism and luminosity of the Sun change over intervals of decades to centuries, by studying an ensemble of solar-type stars over a much shorter time interval of a few years. Additional insight into the evolution of magnetic activity and luminosity over the Sun's entire main-sequence lifetime may be gained by studying other lower main-sequence stars with a variety of masses and ages. This detailed study of magnetic and luminosity variations of stars will have far- reaching consequences for an understanding of the physical principles of the solar-stellar connection and for assessing the uncertainties and true importance of the Sun's potential influence in mean global temperature change models, which have so far based their predictions of global warming on the assumption of a constant Sun. By combining spectra with the photometry, the structure of spots (namely whether they consist of a single large dark area, as suspected, or several smaller dark areas close together) will be determined by another group of astronomers and minority students at the university. This is made possible by the fact that information about dark spots on chromospherically active solar-type stars is poised to undergo a revolution as the result of the extensive observations now piling up from automatic telescopes. These data will allow many individual spots to be identified and studied from their emergence to their demise. As a result of the project and related ones, scientists will finally be able to know just how properties of these spots compare with those of sunspots, to find how chromospherically active stars respond to having 10-30% of their surfaces blocked by dark areas, to assess just what effect-if any-magnetic faculae have on these stars' luminosities, and to determine whether such very active stars really do have cycles of activity like the solar cycle.