Collaborative Research: MAGPIS: A Multi-Array Galactic Plane Imaging Survey

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AST 0507663BeckerOn the 20th anniversary of the Very Large Array, the best available survey of the Galactic Plane at centimeter wavelengths were the 5-10-arcminute resolution Effelsberg surveys at 20 and 11 cm. Two years ago, Drs David Helfand and Robert Becker began a program to improve the resolution and sensitivity of the image of the Galaxy by two orders of magnitude with MAGPIS, the Multi-Array Galactic Plane Imaging Survey. They have just completed imaging the Plane from longitude l = 5 to l = 32 with a resolution of 5 arcseconds, a dynamic range of 1000:1, and a point-source sensitivity of " 1 mJy. These images are publicly available at the website http://third.ucllnl.org/gps, and will find use in a wide variety of applications ranging from the construction of a complete census of the Galaxy's star formation in conjunction with the ongoing Spitzer Plane surveys, to the discovery of the youngest supernova remnants in the Galaxy, to calculation of the expected rate of LIGO signals from merging neutron stars. This collaborative project award for Dr. Helfand at Columbia University and Dr. Robert Becker at the University of California at Davis will be used to continue the creation of this definitive image of the Galactic Plane and to support its public distribution, as well as to use the survey results in a variety of science programs now becoming possible as a consequence of new views through the Galaxy at radio, mid-IR, and X-ray wavelengths.The data products created in this project are all publicly available, and will find use in Galactic studies for decades to come. The tools created for accessing these data may well also find wide applicability. The project will also provide many opportunities for integrating graduate and undergraduate education with the research effort. These researchers have advised to date more than nineteen PhD physicists and astronomers, and several more will become involved with this project. Six of the last eight PhDs are women, and there will be a continuing effort to focus on redressing the under-representation of women and minorities in our discipline. ***