COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Searching for Ultra-Faint Galaxies Around the Milky Way

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。Willman、Geha博士和他们的团队将应用他们经过良好测试的算法，在银河系周围的广大区域搜索附近的超暗矮星系。他们将使用来自大型调查的新数据集，包括斯隆数字天空调查、红色序列星系团调查和南方天空调查。除了应该从2009年开始的南方天空调查之外，所有这些数据都已经可以获得。该团队将改进他们的算法，在参数空间的大小、年龄和距离的新区域搜索暗矮星系。后续的观测包括更深入的光度测量和光谱分析，将测量新的候选矮星的质量、金属丰度和其他基本性质。这项工作将产生一个具有广泛内在性质的超暗矮星样本，在银河系周围具有统计意义的体积。一名博士后研究员以及研究生和本科生将在参与这项研究时接受培训。威尔曼博士和盖哈博士将在这项研究的基础上，为高等本科水平的银河天文学课程开发和传播课程资源。博士后研究员将有机会在哈弗福德学院获得一次密切指导的本科生教学经验。该团队将创建一个维基，以汇编和维护关于本族矮星系的信息。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Dr. Willman, Dr Geha and their team will apply their well-tested algorithms to search for nearby ultra-faint dwarf galaxies in vast regions around the Milky Way. They will use new datasets from large surveys, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Red Sequence Cluster Survey and the Southern Sky Survey. Data are already available from all these except the Southern Sky Survey, which should begin in 2009. The team will improve their algorithms to search for faint dwarf galaxies in new regions of parameter space in size, age and distance. Follow-up observations including both deeper photometry and spectroscopy will measure the mass, metallicity and other fundamental properties of new candidate dwarfs. The work will yield a sample of ultra-faint dwarfs with a broad range of intrinsic properties, in a statistically significant volume around the Milky Way.A postdoctoral researcher and both graduate and undergraduate students will be trained as they participate in this research. Dr. Willman and Dr. Geha will develop and disseminate curricular resources based on this research for classes in Galactic Astronomy at the advanced undergraduate level. The postdoctoral researcher will have the opportunity for a closely mentored undergraduate teaching experience at Haverford College. The team will create a wiki to compile and maintain information on Local Group dwarf galaxies.