MRI-R^2 Consortium: Development of VISION: The Next Generation Science Camera for the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer

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。天文学家知道太阳黑子（或恒星黑子）是常见的，但除了太阳本身之外，几乎没有细节。 我们的太阳和其他恒星一样吗？我们是生活在太阳生命中的一个不寻常的时期，还是其他恒星的典型时期？ 我们能预测甚至预测可能影响我们天气和气候的太阳表面的变化吗？ 为了试图回答这些问题，天文学家必须提高望远镜的分辨率，以便看到其他恒星表面的细节。 田纳西州立大学的马修·穆特斯波博士设计了一种新的光学相机，它将提高干涉仪的分辨率，干涉仪是一种特殊的望远镜，由几个分散在100米以上距离的小望远镜组成。他的照相机将被安装在位于亚利桑那州弗拉格斯塔夫附近的海军原型光学干涉仪上，它将使干涉仪观察细节的能力提高10倍。 这将使天文学家，第一次，看到其他恒星表面的细节，如我们的太阳博士穆特斯波的工作是由美国国家科学基金会的主要研究仪器计划通过天文科学部资助。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)Studying the surface details of stars like our sun has been very limited because of their small angular sizes due to their great distances. Astronomers know that sunspots (or starspots) are common, but little detail is known except for the sun itself. Is our sun like other stars? Are we living in an unusual time in the sun's life or is it typical of that of other stars? Can we expect and even predict changes to the sun's surface that may affect our weather and climate? To try to answer these questions, astronomers must increase the resolution of telescopes to see fine details on the surfaces of other stars. Dr. Matthew Muterspaugh of Tennessee State University has designed a new optical camera that will improve the resolution of an interferometer, a special kind of telescope that is made up of several small telescopes spread apart over distances in excess of 100 meters. His camera will be put on the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer located near Flagstaff, Arizona and it will improve the Interferometer's ability to see fine detail by a factor of 10. This will enable astronomers, for the first time, to see the details on the surfaces of other stars like our sun Dr. Muterspaugh's work is funded by NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program through the Division of Astronomical Sciences.