Completing the Galactic Plane Infrared Polarization Survey (GPIPS)

完成银河平面红外偏振巡天 (GPIPS)

• 批准号: 0907790
• 负责人: Dan Clemens
• 金额: $ 89.66万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-01 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0907790&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Completing; Galactic; Plane; Infrared; Polarization

The magnetic field threading the Galaxy's interstellar medium (ISM) is poorly revealed and its roles in cloud and star formation are unclear. Dr. Dan Clemens (Boston University) and his team are addressing these problems using a powerful instrument (Mimir, a near-infrared wide-field imaging polarimeter) coupled with substantial observing time (about 50 nights per year, with key project status) on the 1.8-meter Perkins telescope outside Flagstaff, Arizona. Presently, the team is about midway through the telescopic observations comprising the Galactic Plane Infrared Polarization Survey (GPIPS) and, through this award, will complete all GPIPS observations over the next four years. GPIPS expands existing optical/infrared (OIR) probes of the ISM magnetic field by four to five orders of magnitude, to about 500,000 stellar polarizations, and reveals the field five times more distant than seen before using OIR methods, to and beyond the nearest spiral arm and through dark clouds to a visual extinction of 25 magnitudes. GPIPS represents a huge increase in the data available for probing the Milky Way's magnetic field. The inner midplane region offers a wealth of correlative data concerning the stellar targets, as well as revealing a wide variety of distinctly different environments in the diffuse and dense ISM. The new magnetic field insight GPIPS will uncover will help test models across many size scales to gauge the role of the magnetic field in a wide range of ISM environments in the Galaxy.The public release of high-quality, well-calibrated data products will allow other astronomers to mine the transformative GPIPS data for new discoveries, and to bring vital insight to other studies. The methods and approaches pioneered by GPIPS will guide future large-scale and follow-up studies. During the first three years of the survey, GPIPS and Mimir have had major impacts on the career development of research students, comprising the capstone astronomical experience for about 30 Boston University students to date, and enabling visitors and collaborators to obtain new data for a wide variety of projects. The team's suite of publically-available software tools and web sites make access to, and science with, Mimir data easy and efficient. Over the next four years, the team will leverage this base to higher levels of impact by developing and serving out a series of webcasts and podcasts, both for the general public on topics such as infrared astronomy, polarimetry, and magnetic fields, and for the research community (the GPIPS data products, the Mimir instrument and software). Finally, members of the team will work with the Boston University Scientific Visualization Center to develop exportable tools and/or shows to view and interact with the three-dimensional decomposition of the GPIPS data set and its relationships to other tracers of the ISM.

穿过银河系星际介质（ISM）的磁场很少被揭示，它在云和恒星形成中的作用也不清楚。 Dan Clemens 博士（波士顿大学）和他的团队正在使用强大的仪器（Mimir，近红外宽视场成像旋光计）以及亚利桑那州弗拉格斯塔夫郊外 1.8 米 Perkins 望远镜的大量观测时间（每年约 50 个夜晚，具有关键项目状态）来解决这些问题。目前，该团队正在进行包括银河平面红外偏振巡天（GPIPS）在内的望远镜观测工作大约进行到一半，并且通过该奖项，将在未来四年内完成所有 GPIPS 观测。 GPIPS 将现有的 ISM 磁场光学/红外 (OIR) 探测器扩展了四到五个数量级，达到约 500,000 颗恒星偏振，并揭示了比以前使用 OIR 方法所见的磁场远五倍的距离，到达并超越最近的旋臂，并穿过乌云达到 25 星等的视觉消光。 GPIPS 代表着可用于探测银河系磁场的数据的巨大增加。 内部中平面区域提供了大量有关恒星目标的相关数据，并揭示了弥漫和密集的ISM中各种截然不同的环境。 GPIPS 将揭示的新磁场洞察力将有助于测试多种尺寸尺度的模型，以衡量磁场在银河系各种 ISM 环境中的作用。高质量、经过良好校准的数据产品的公开发布将使其他天文学家能够挖掘变革性的 GPIPS 数据以获得新发现，并为其他研究带来重要的见解。 GPIPS开创的方法和途径将指导未来的大规模和后续研究。 在调查的前三年中，GPIPS 和 Mimir 对研究生的职业发展产生了重大影响，包括迄今为止约 30 名波士顿大学学生的天文顶峰经验，并使访问者和合作者能够获得各种项目的新数据。 该团队的一套公开可用的软件工具和网站使访问 Mimir 数据和利用 Mimir 数据进行科学分析变得简单而高效。在接下来的四年中，该团队将通过开发和提供一系列网络广播和播客，利用这一基础产生更高水平的影响，既面向公众，也面向研究界（GPIPS 数据产品、Mimir 仪器和软件），主题涉及红外天文学、偏振测量和磁场等主题。 最后，该团队的成员将与波士顿大学科学可视化中心合作开发可导出的工具和/或演示，以查看 GPIPS 数据集的三维分解及其与 ISM 的其他跟踪器的关系并与之交互。