Information Technology Infrastructure Improvements at Lowell Observatory

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。该项目涉及亚利桑那州弗拉格斯塔夫洛厄尔天文台的网络基础设施的翻新。洛厄尔天文台的资产分布在三个不同的台地或山顶。建议是加强两地之间的电讯联系，在两个地点之间部署长途微波网络连接，以及翻新天文台主校区的数据中心。洛厄尔天文台的望远镜用于研究太阳系中的小天体，包括彗星和海王星以外绕太阳运行的柯伊伯带天体(KBO)。天文台新的探索频道望远镜将允许对KBO进行比以往任何时候都更全面的调查。研究人员对选定的小行星进行研究。天文台的设施还用于研究年轻恒星周围的尘埃和气体的行星形成盘，旨在解决关于恒星质量和亮度的相互竞争的理论的持续分歧的研究，双星研究，太阳天文学，寻找和研究太阳系外的行星，银河系内的星团和矮小星系。除了为研究提供基础设施外，天文台还提供公共教育计划。自1996年以来，天文台的几名天文学家在附近的纳瓦霍和霍皮人保留地的中学开展了为期一学期的指导计划。通过与探索通信公司的合作，天文台正在建造探索频道望远镜。探索频道关于望远镜及其科学意志的节目预计将覆盖全球数亿观众，并将成为普通公众关于宇宙的信息来源。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This project involves the renovation of the cyberinfrastructure at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Lowell Observatory's assets are distributed across three separate mesas or hilltops. The proposal is to enhance the telecommunications connections between them, by deploying long distance microwave network links between the sites, and to renovate the data center at the Observatory's main campus. Lowell Observatory's telescopes are used for studies of small objects in the solar system, including comets and the Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune. The Observatory's new Discovery Channel Telescope will allow a more comprehensive survey of KBOs than has ever been done. Researchers conduct studies of selected asteroids. The Observatory's facilities are also used for studies of the planet-forming disks of dust and gas around very young stars, studies aimed at resolving the persistent differences in competing theories relating stellar masses and brightness, research on binary stars, solar astronomy, the search for and study of extrasolar planets, star clusters within the Milky Way galaxy, and dwarf galaxies.In addition to providing infrastructure for research, the Observatory provides public education programs. Since 1996, several of the Observatory's astronomers have carried out a semester-long mentoring program in middle schools on the nearby Navajo and Hopi reservations. Through a partnership with Discovery Communications, the Observatory is building the Discovery Channel Telescope. The Discovery Channel's programming about the telescope and its science will is anticipated to reach hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide and will be a source of information about the cosmos for the general public.