Spectropolarimetry at the Hale Telescope

这项奖励支持在探索性研究小额赠款下开始的工作的继续。这项工作的核心是利用一种重要的新天文仪器--帕洛玛五米望远镜的光谱偏振仪--来研究活动星系的核。旋光法的使用使人们能够推断这类系统的中心天体的性质，即使它们被母星系中的尘埃遮挡住了。这台仪器的设计、建造和操作将由在研究其中一些天体的表观超光速运动方面走在前列的团队进行。

This award supports continuation of work begun under a Small Grant for Exploratory Research. The heart of the work is the utilization of an important new astronomical instrument, a spectropolarimeter at the Palomar five meter telescope, to study the nuclei of active galaxies. The use of polarimetry enables one to infer properties of the central object of such systems, even when they are obscured by intervening dust in the parent galaxy. This instrument was designed, built, and will be operated by the group that has led the way in the study of apparent superluminal motion in some of these objects.