A Mid-IR Instrument Design for the TMT

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。来自美国、加拿大和其他地方的天文学家正在参与设计一种面向未来的新型望远镜——30米望远镜，简称TMT。它的名字说明了一切，新的望远镜将有一个直径30米（大约98英尺）的镜子！这种巨大的望远镜（目前至少有三个正在考虑中）被称为超大型望远镜（Extremely Large telescope，简称elt）。望远镜的大小很重要，有两个原因：更大的收集区域意味着可以收集更多的光，使天文学家能够在合理的望远镜时间内研究最微弱的物体；增大的镜面尺寸也可以提高分辨率，从而可以更仔细地检查物体的细节。望远镜将它收集到的光传送到一个焦点，在那里各种仪器可以用来分析这些光。佛罗里达大学的克里斯托弗·帕克汉姆博士正在与一位日本同事合作，为TMT设计一种仪器，该仪器将形成遥远物体的图像和光谱。该仪器将在中红外波段工作（在波长比可见光长但比微波短的电磁波谱部分）。对中红外光的分析可以告诉我们行星是如何从恒星周围的圆盘中的物质形成的，以及围绕黑洞旋转的物体的行为。这项工作是由美国国家科学基金会天文科学部通过快速反应研究拨款（Rapid）计划支持的。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Astronomers from the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere are involved in the design of a new telescope for the future - the Thirty Meter Telescope, or TMT. Its name says it all, the new telescope would have a mirror that is 30 meters (approximately 98 feet) in diameter! Such huge telescopes (there are at least three being considered now) are termed Extremely Large Telescopes, or ELTs. The size of a telescope is important for two reasons: a bigger collecting area means that more light can be gathered, allowing astronomers to study the faintest of objects within a reasonable amount of telescope time; and the increased mirror size also enables higher resolution so that the fine details of objects can be examined more closely. A telescope delivers the light it gathers to a focus where various instruments can be used to analyze the light. Dr. Christopher Packham of the University of Florida is working in collaboration with a Japanese colleague to design an instrument for the TMT that will form images and spectra of distant objects. This instrument will work in the mid-infrared (in the part of the electromagnetic spectrum with wavelengths longer than visible light but shorter than microwaves). Analysis of mid-infrared light can tell us how planets are formed from the material in disks around stars and also how the objects swirling around a black hole behave. The work is supported by the Division of Astronomical Sciences of the National Science Foundation through the Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) program.