Upgrades to the IOTA Infrared Detection & Guidance System

AST-9528129资金将用于更换和升级限制红外光学望远镜阵列(IOTA)灵敏度的部件。这些部件包括红外波束合成光学器件、红外探测器、自动导引仪和数据采集计算机。有了这些改进，干涉仪应该能够探测到比目前极限暗10-20倍的物体。此外，通过使用红外自动导航仪，将有可能观测到没有可见对应物的真实红外源。这些变化将使近红外干涉仪首次能够观测到被厚重包裹的进化星、沃尔夫-瑞耶星、行星状星云、发射线恒星、巨型分子云源和T金牛座恒星。该干涉仪的角分辨率为0.012角秒，波长为2.2微米，可以探测到猎户座恒星形成区距离木星轨道大小的结构。

Abstract AST- 9528129 Funds from this grant will be used to replace and upgrade components which limit the sensitivity of the Infrared Optical Telescope Array (IOTA). These components include the infrared beam-combining optics, the infrared detectors, the autoguiders and the data-collection computers. With these improvements the interferometer should be able to detect objects 10-20 times fainter than the present limit. In addition, by employing infrared autoguiders, it will be possible to observe true infrared sources with no visible counterparts. These changes will enable, for the first time with a near-infrared interferometer, the observations of heavily enshrouded evolved stars, Wolf-Rayet stars, planetary nebulae, emission-line stars, sources in giant molecular clouds and T Tauri stars. With an angular resolution of 0.012 arcseconds at a wavelength of 2.2 micrometers the interferometer can detect structures the size of Jupiter's orbit at the distance of the Orion star- forming regions.