Collaborative Research: Astronomy with CARMA

在过去三年中，毫米天文研究联合阵列(CARMA)是由两个由天文学科学部大学射电天文台(URO)计划支持的望远镜阵列合并而成的，这两个望远镜阵列是加州理工学院的欧文斯谷射电天文台(OVRO)阵列，由6个直径10.4米的望远镜组成，以及伯克利-伊利诺伊州马里兰协会(BIMA)的9个6.1米直径望远镜阵列。随着新址的调试工作现已完成，CARMA将在1毫米波长下实现高达0.2角秒的分辨率，由于其望远镜直径的不同组合，将在广泛的角度范围内提供出色的成像。当2009年安装新的接收器时，CARMA在1毫米频段的灵敏度将比以前的阵列高一个数量级。由CARMA促成的这项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调查。Carma是阿塔卡马大毫米阵列(ALMA)的探路者，也是培训毫米干涉测量领域的专家以充分利用ALMA在美国天文学方面的能力的管道。

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.