Palomar Transient Factory

从造父变星、超新星、爆炸性X射线源到伽马射线爆发，天空中的瞬变和爆炸现象一直是令人惊讶的原因，也是启发的源泉。 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，超新星触及了强引力和致密物质的物理学，伽马射线爆发则是年轻宇宙的灯塔。 技术创新使得在光学天空中寻找瞬变现象变得实用和及时，而这个项目，帕洛玛瞬变工厂（PTF），被优化用于系统和非常高通量的瞬变和变量调查，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，和引力波源。 目前这些源的定位非常差，但PTF将能够做出响应，因为它的视野很大，并且能够测量背景和前景事件的发生率。 PTF还将探索意想不到或定义不清的瞬变天空，包括比新星亮但比超新星暗的假设物体。 每隔几天，这种系统的星空图就会显示出大约700颗热核超新星和几百颗核心坍缩超新星，它们的后续工作需要的不仅仅是这个项目的资源，尽管它们是相当可观的。宇宙瞬态物体的影响是由诸如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的报道引起的兴奋所表明的。 该项目将继续为早期职业（学生和博士后）研究人员提供尖端研究的实践经验。 计划中的公共档案馆内置了方便访问的功能，不仅有利于科学界，也使公众了解科学的实际情况，并有助于大学生和有才华的高中生的教育。

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.