Palomar Transient Factory

从造父变星和脉冲星到超新星、爆炸X射线源和伽马射线爆发，天空中的瞬变和爆炸现象一直是令人惊讶和启迪的原因。因此，造父变星表明宇宙比想象的要大得多，超新星揭示了宇宙中元素的积累，脉冲星触及了强引力和最稠密物质的物理，伽马射线爆发是年轻宇宙的指路明灯。现在，技术创新使得在光学天空中搜索瞬变变得实用和及时，这个项目，Palomar瞬变工厂(PTF)，被优化为对瞬变和变星进行系统和高吞吐量的调查，达到21级。PTF计划将在某些已知领域产生有保证的科学，如超高能宇宙射线、高能中微子、太电子伏光子和引力波来源。目前这些震源的本地化很差，但PTF将能够做出反应，因为它的视场很大，以及测量背景和前景事件的速率。PTF还将探索意想不到或定义不清的瞬变天空，包括假想的比新星亮但比超新星暗的物体。这种每隔几天绘制的系统天空图将揭示大约700颗热核超新星和数百颗核心崩塌的超新星，它们的后续行动将需要的不仅仅是这个项目的资源，尽管它们是相当可观的。宇宙瞬变物体的影响由报告中最远的伽马射线爆发、最明亮的超新星和最快的脉冲星等项目引起的兴奋来表明。该项目将继续为早期职业(学生和博士后)研究人员提供前沿研究的实践经验。计划中的内置方便获取的公共档案不仅将造福于科学界，还将使公众在行动中接触到科学，并为大学生和有才华的高中生的教育做出贡献。

Transient and explosive phenomena in the heavens have been a cause of astonishment and a source of enlightenment, from Cepheid variables and pulsars to supernovae, explosive X-ray sources and gamma-ray bursts. Thus, Cepheid variables showed that the Universe was much larger than had been imagined, supernovae revealed the buildup of elements in the Universe, pulsars touch on the physics of strong gravity and the densest matter, and gamma-ray bursts serve as beacons to the young Universe. Technological innovations now make it practical and timely to search the optical heavens for transients, and this project, the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), is optimized for a systematic and very high throughput survey for transients and variables to the 21st magnitude level.The PTF program will yield guaranteed science in certain known areas, such as ultra-high energy cosmic rays, energetic neutrinos, tera-electron-volt photons, and gravitational wave sources. The localization of these sources is currently very poor, but PTF will be able to respond because of its large field of view, as well as measuring the rates of background and foreground events. PTF will also explore the unexpected or ill-defined transient sky, including hypothesized objects brighter than novae but fainter than supernovae. Such systematic charting of the sky every few days will reveal around seven hundred thermonuclear supernovae and several hundred core-collapse supernovae, whose follow-on will require more than just this project's resources, considerable as they are.The impact of cosmic transient objects is indicated by the excitement caused by reports of items like the farthest gamma-ray burst, the most brilliant supernova, and the fastest pulsar. This project will continue to offer early career (student and postdoctoral) researchers hands-on experience with cutting edge research. The planned public archive with built-in easy access will not only benefit the scientific community but also expose the public to science in action, and contribute to the education of college and talented high school students.