Collaborative Research: Astronomy with CARMA

在过去的三年里，毫米波天文研究联合阵列（CARMA）是由天文科学部大学射电天文台（URO）项目支持的两个望远镜阵列合并而成的，这两个望远镜阵列就是加州理工学院？欧文斯谷射电天文台（OVRO）的6个直径10.4米的望远镜阵列，以及伯克利伊利诺伊马里兰协会（BIMA）的9个直径6.1米的望远镜阵列。随着新站点的调试完成，CARMA将在1mm波长下实现高达0.2弧秒的分辨率，并且由于其望远镜直径的非均匀组合，将在大范围的角度尺度上提供出色的成像。当新的接收机在2009年安装时，CARMA在1mm波段的灵敏度将比以前的阵列高一个数量级。CARMA带来的新科学涵盖了广泛的天文学主题，包括恒星形成和分子云，外部星系的研究，以及太阳系天体的研究。CARMA是阿塔卡马大型毫米波阵列（ALMA）的探路者，也是毫米干涉测量领域培训专家的管道，以充分利用ALMA的能力为美国天文学服务。

Over the past three years the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy (CARMA) was formed from the merger of two telescope arrays supported by the Division of Astronomical Science's University Radio Observatories (URO) Program, these being Caltech?s Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) array of six 10.4-meter-diameter telescopes, and the Berkeley Illinois Maryland Association (BIMA) array of nine 6.1-meter-diameter telescopes. With commissioning at the new site now complete, CARMA will achieve resolutions as high as 0.2 arcseconds at a wavelength of 1mm and, due to its heterogeneous combination of telescope diameters, will provide excellent imaging over a wide range of angular scales. When new receivers are installed in 2009, CARMA's sensitivity in the 1 mm band will be an order of magnitude greater than that of the previous arrays. The new science enabled by CARMA covers a broad range of astronomical topics, including star formation and molecular clouds, studies of external galaxies, and the investigation of solar system objects. CARMA is a pathfinder for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and a pipeline for training experts in the field of millimeter interferometry to take full advantage of ALMA's capabilities for US astronomy.