The Michigan/Magellan Fiber System (M2FS): An MRI Development Proposal

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。在世界上最大的望远镜上观察时间是一种非常宝贵的商品。任何能够提高其效率的方案都能在可开展的科学研究项目数量和相关的观测成本方面获得可观的回报。密歇根大学的马里奥·马特奥博士设计了一种新的摄谱仪，用于智利拉斯坎帕纳斯天文台的6.5米麦哲伦望远镜，这是华盛顿卡内基研究所天文台的一个研究设施。摄谱仪是天文学和许多其他科学技术领域的主力仪器。他们将望远镜聚焦的光扩散成其组成颜色（如彩虹），以供进一步分析。这种分析可以告诉我们天体的化学成分、温度和速度。与现有仪器相比，这种新的光谱仪将在操作效率、波长覆盖范围、光学吞吐量和易用性方面实现显着提高。新的摄谱仪将通过光纤同时接收来自天空中多达256个物体的光。美国国家科学基金会正在通过其主要研究仪器项目资助这种新型光谱仪的开发。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Observing time on the world's largest telescopes is a very valuable commodity. Any scheme that can enhance their efficiency pays significant dividends in the number of scientific research programs that can be undertaken and in the associated cost of the observations. Dr. Mario Mateo of the University of Michigan has designed a new spectrograph for use on the 6.5-meter Magellan telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, a research facility of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Spectrographs are a workhorse instrument for astronomy and many other fields of science and technology. They spread the light from the telescope focus into its constituent colors (like a rainbow) for further analysis. The analysis can tell us about the chemical composition, temperature, and velocity of a celestial object. This new spectrograph will realize a significant increase in operational efficiency, wavelength coverage, optical throughput, and ease of use over the existing instrument. The new spectrograph will be fed light simultaneously from up to 256 objects on the sky via optical fibers. The National Science Foundation is funding the development of this new spectrograph through its Major Research Instrumentation program.