MRI: Development of Enhanced Adaptive Optics System and Infrared Instrumentation for the Shane 3-meter Telescope

MRI：为 Shane 3 米望远镜开发增强型自适应光学系统和红外仪器

• 批准号: 0923585
• 负责人: Donald Gavel
• 金额: $ 200万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-15 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0923585&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Development; Enhanced; Adaptive; Optics

Telescopes on the ground must observe objects in deep space through the interference of the earth's atmosphere. As light passes through the atmosphere it gets spread out by turbulence due to wind shear and changes in temperature and pressure within the atmospheric layers which effectively diminishes the resolving power of earth-based telescopes. This difficulty can be overcome to a large extent by relatively new techniques employing Laser Guide Stars (LGS) and Adaptive Optics (AO) where a bright laser illuminates a patch of sky near the target object. The laser's light is absorbed and then re-emitted by sodium atoms in the upper atmosphere, above much of the interfering lower atmosphere. The return signal can then be used to track the time-dependent atmospheric distortion of the light. Adaptive Optics uses this information to rapidly adjust optics in the telescope's instrumentation to restore the image to (nearly) what would be seen from above the atmosphere. The University of California's Lick Observatory has been a leader in the development of adaptive optics techniques for astronomy. They are now developing an improved system using new micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) technology to be installed on the Lick Observatory's three-meter Shane Telescope. This new system will very significantly improve the sharpness of the image delivered by the telescope to its instruments. Dr. Donald Gavel of the University of California-Santa Cruz is leading this effort. The new AO system is being funded by the National Science Foundation through its Major Research Instrumentation Program.

地面望远镜必须通过地球大气层的干扰来观察深空物体。 当光线穿过大气层时，由于风切变和大气层内温度和压力的变化，光线会被湍流扩散，这会有效地降低地球望远镜的分辨率。这一困难可以在很大程度上通过采用激光导星（LGS）和自适应光学（AO）的相对较新的技术来克服，其中明亮的激光照亮目标物体附近的一片天空。激光的光被吸收，然后被高层大气中的钠原子重新发射，高层大气中的钠原子高于大部分干扰的低层大气。 然后，返回信号可以用于跟踪光的时间依赖性大气失真。自适应光学利用这些信息来快速调整望远镜仪器中的光学器件，以将图像恢复到（几乎）从大气层上方看到的图像。 加州大学的利克天文台一直是天文学自适应光学技术发展的领导者。 他们现在正在开发一种使用新的微机电系统（MEMS）技术的改进系统，将安装在利克天文台的三米谢恩望远镜上。 这一新系统将大大提高望远镜向其仪器传送的图像的清晰度。 加州大学圣克鲁斯分校的唐纳德·加韦尔博士正在领导这项工作。 新的AO系统由国家科学基金会通过其重大研究仪器计划资助。