IRFP: "Lucky Imaging": Acquiring the Highest Angular Resolutions in Optical Astronomy

国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9到24个月的研究。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，并利用国外独特或互补的设施、专业知识和实验条件。该奖项将支持Mark Keremedjiev博士与英国剑桥大学的Craig Mackay教授合作的为期24个月的研究奖学金。获得更清晰、更详细的图像的能力对于解开天体物理学的许多谜团至关重要，也是哈勃太空望远镜如此成功的主要原因之一。因此，能够从地面产生类似或更好质量的数据的仪器的开发提供了一个机会，以一小部分的成本做出进一步的革命性发现。已经被证明可以实现这一目标的一种特殊技术是“幸运成像”--一种天文技术，它达到了光学天文学中有史以来最高的角度分辨率。然而，瑞幸成像仍处于初级阶段，其潜力才刚刚开始实现。Keremedjiev博士正在与克雷格·麦凯教授和剑桥幸运成像小组合作，研究幸运成像的两种尖端变体：幸运+AO和幸运光谱。Lucky+AO(将自适应光学引入系统的一种改进技术)已经在5米级望远镜上成功演示，该团队正在为8米级和10米级望远镜开发专用版本，将提供有史以来最高分辨率的光学图像。他们还在开发瑞幸光谱，将一个集成场光谱仪耦合到瑞幸成像系统，以获取光谱信息和成像信息。除了新技术的开发，克雷梅季耶夫博士还在加那利群岛使用已完工的带有望远镜的幸运摄像头系统进行科学研究。他正在观察候选系外系的主恒星，并对系外行星的性质做出更好的估计，限制系外行星的形成过程，并帮助描述开普勒太空望远镜的特征。他还在努力确定幸运光谱是否能够测量超大质量黑洞(SMBH)的质量；如果是这样的话，幸运光谱将能够通过运动学模型测量到迄今观察到的最远和最大质量的SMBH。该项目对更广泛的天文学领域有几个直接影响。第一是加强基础设施和仪器设备的开发。通过开发专用的Lucky+AO和Lucky光谱系统，该奖项对于增加所有天文学家获取最高角度分辨率数据的机会至关重要。此外，该奖项使Keremedjiev博士能够学习建造新的幸运成像系统所需的技能，这些系统将部署在双子座和基特峰国家天文台等美国机构。该计划还促进了对未来天文学家的培训，因为剑桥大学招收的几名研究生正在为该项目工作。最后，幸运成像能够以天基任务的一小部分成本产生极高质量的数据，并有助于使天文仪器更具成本效益。

The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Mark Keremedjiev to work with Professor Craig Mackay at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.The ability to attain sharper, more detailed images is essential to unraveling the many mysteries of astrophysics and is one of the principle reasons why the Hubble Space Telescope has been so successful. Therefore, the development of instruments capable of producing data of similar or better quality from the ground presents an opportunity to make further revolutionary discoveries for a fraction of the cost. One particular technique that is already proven to achieve this goal is "Lucky Imaging" -- an astronomical technique that has achieved the highest angular resolutions ever recorded in optical astronomy. Lucky Imaging, however, is still in its infancy and its potential is only beginning to be realized. Dr. Keremedjiev is working with Professor Craig Mackay and the Cambridge Lucky Imaging group on two cutting edge variations of Lucky Imaging: Lucky+AO and Lucky Spectroscopy. Lucky+AO (a refinement of the technique that introduces adaptive optics to the system) has already been successfully demonstrated on a 5-meter class telescope and the team is working on dedicated versions for 8 and 10-meter class telescopes that will provide the highest resolution optical images ever recorded. They are also developing Lucky Spectroscopy where an integral field spectrograph is coupled to a Lucky Imaging system to acquire spectroscopic information as well as imaging information. In addition to the development of new techniques, Dr. Keremedjiev is also using the finished LuckyCam system with telescopes on the Canary Islands to conduct scientific research. He is observing the host-stars of candidate exoplanetary systems and producing better estimates of exoplanetary properties, constraining the formation processes of exoplanets and aiding the characterization of the Kepler Space Telescope. He is also working to determine if Lucky Spectroscopy will be capable of measuring the masses of Supermassive Black Holes (SMBH); if so, Lucky Spectroscopy will be able to measure the furthest and most massive SMBH yet observed through kinematic modeling.This project has several direct impacts on the broader astronomy community. The first is the enhancement of infrastructure and instrumentation development. By developing dedicated Lucky+AO and Lucky Spectroscopy systems, this award is vital to increasing access to the highest angular resolution data for all astronomers. Furthermore, the award enables Dr. Keremedjiev to learn the skills necessary to build new Lucky Imaging systems for deployment at American institutions such as the Gemini and the Kitt Peak National Observatories. This program also promotes training of future astronomers as several graduate students enrolled at the University of Cambridge work on the project. Finally, Lucky Imaging is able to produce extremely high-quality data for a fraction of the cost of space-based missions and contributes to making astronomical instrumentation more cost-effective.