MRI: Development of Chiron: CTIO High Resolution Spectrometer

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。天文学家们用来寻找行星的最有效的方法之一是，当行星在其轨道上围绕恒星运行时，试图探测恒星的速度变化。这种经过验证的技术使用一种叫做摄谱仪的仪器来测量恒星光谱中特征波长的微小变化。这种变化是由于我们熟悉的多普勒效应，并且与恒星速度的变化直接相关。对具有足够功率和分辨率的摄谱仪来发现这些速度变化的望远镜的需求正在增加，而且需要更多的望远镜来满足需求。旧金山州立大学的黛布拉·菲舍尔博士正在利用国家科学基金会主要研究仪器项目的资助，为这类研究设计一种新的光谱仪。这种新的摄谱仪将比现有的仪器更有效地利用望远镜时间，也将使天文学家能够更准确地确定速度。完成后，光谱仪将被放置在智利Cerro Tololo美洲天文台（CTIO）的1.5米望远镜上。CTIO是由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）资助的，所有天文学家都可以通过竞争性的价值审查程序来研究它的望远镜。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).One of the most effective means employed by astronomers to search for planets around stars other than our sun is to try to detect the velocity shift of the star as the planet moves about the star in its orbit. This well proven technique employs an instrument called a spectrograph to measure the small shifts in the wavelengths of features in a star's spectrum. The shifts are due to the familiar Doppler effect and are directly related to the changes in the star's velocity. Demand for telescopes that have a spectrograph of sufficient power and resolution to find these velocity shifts is increasing and more are needed to satisfy the demand. Dr. Debra Fischer of San Francisco State University is building a new spectrograph designed for such studies using funds awarded from NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program. This new spectrograph will be much more efficient in its use of telescope time than the current instrument, and will also allow astronomers to determine velocities much more accurately. When completed, the spectrograph will be placed on a 1.5-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. CTIO is publicly funded by NSF and research time on its telescopes is available to all astronomers through a competitive merit review process.