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

国际研究奖学金项目使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9至24个月的研究。该计划的奖励为联合研究提供了机会，并利用独特或互补的设施、专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持Mark Keremedjiev博士与英国剑桥大学的Craig Mackay教授开展为期24个月的研究。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，这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数据的仪器的发展，为以较低的成本取得进一步的革命性发现提供了机会。一种已经被证明可以实现这一目标的特殊技术是“幸运成像”——一种天文学技术，它实现了光学天文学中有史以来最高的角度分辨率。然而，Lucky Imaging仍处于起步阶段，其潜力才刚刚开始显现。Keremedjiev博士正在与Craig Mackay教授和剑桥幸运成像小组合作，研究幸运成像的两个前沿变体：幸运+AO和幸运光谱学。Lucky+AO（一种将自适应光学引入系统的改进技术）已经在5米级望远镜上成功演示，该团队正在为8米和10米级望远镜开发专用版本，这将提供有史以来最高分辨率的光学图像。他们还在开发幸运光谱学，其中集成场光谱仪与幸运成像系统相结合，以获取光谱信息和成像信息。除了开发新技术外，Keremedjiev博士还在加那利群岛上使用已完成的LuckyCam系统和望远镜进行科学研究。他正在观察候选系外行星系统的主恒星，并更好地估计系外行星的特性，限制系外行星的形成过程，并协助开普勒太空望远镜的表征。他还致力于确定幸运光谱学是否能够测量超大质量黑洞（SMBH）的质量；如果是这样的话，幸运光谱学将能够通过运动学建模测量到的最远和最大的SMBH。这个项目对更广泛的天文学界有几个直接的影响。首先是基础设施和仪器开发的增强。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得最高角度分辨率数据的机会至关重要。此外，该奖项使Keremedjiev博士能够学习必要的技能，以建立新的幸运成像系统，部署在美国机构，如双子座和基特峰国家天文台。这个项目还促进了对未来天文学家的培训，剑桥大学招收了几名研究生参与这个项目。最后，Lucky Imaging能够以天基任务成本的一小部分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.