Adaptive Optics for the CHARA Array

CHARA 阵列的自适应光学器件

• 批准号: 1106136
• 负责人: Theo ten Brummelaar
• 金额: $ 110.92万
• 依托单位: Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1106136&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Adaptive; Optics; CHARA; Array

On the summit of Mt. Wilson overlooking Los Angeles sits a Y-shaped array of six 1-m aperture telescopes operating as an optical/near-infrared interferometric array with baselines from 33 to 331 meters, or angular resolutions of better than 1 milliarcsecond. This far exceeds the resolution of the largest ground-based and orbiting telescopes, and is even an order of magnitude better than will be possible with the extremely large telescopes (ELTs) planned for the next decade. Since construction of the Mt. Wilson array was completed in 2005 by Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA), it has yielded the first direct detection of gravity darkening on a single star, the first angular diameter for a halo population star, the first image of a single, main-sequence star, and the first direct image of an interacting binary, among other advances. Almost every new measurement reveals that our understanding of stellar astronomy was in some aspect incomplete or simplistic.In the first CHARA array upgrade since construction, Georgia State's Dr. T. ten Brummelaar and collaborators have carefully considered the most cost-effective approaches to enhance the sensitivity of the instrument. They intend to redesign the tip-tilt/wavefront sensor to use an improved detector and eliminate 19 reflections, plus enhance the wavefront control through the addition of a simple low-order adaptive optics (AO) system. Together, these modifications should yield sensitivity increases of ~50x for many targets, with greater improvements in the near-IR. New important areas of study include highly reddened targets such as protoplanetary disks around young stars, active galactic nuclei, and close binary stellar systems, including those containing neutron stars and stellar black holes.Access to the Mt. Wilson interferometer is afforded to consortium members but also to the general astronomical community through an open allocation process managed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO). Through the array, CHARA is training the next generation of scientific and technical experts in the field of interferometry, and scientific results emerging from the facility are incorporated in undergraduate courses as well as public outreach activities. Funding for upgrading the Mt. Wilson optical/near-IR interferometer is being provided by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through its Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program.

在威尔逊山的山顶上，俯瞰洛杉矶的山顶是一个Y形的六个1-M光圈望远镜，作为光学/近红外干涉阵列运行的基线，或33至331米的基线，或比1 milliarcsecond更好的角度分辨率。 这远远超过了最大的地面和轨道望远镜的分辨率，甚至在未来十年计划的非常大的望远镜（ELTS）中，甚至是一个数量级要好。 Since construction of the Mt. Wilson array was completed in 2005 by Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA), it has yielded the first direct detection of gravity darkening on a single star, the first angular diameter for a halo population star, the first image of a single, main-sequence star, and the first direct image of an interacting binary, among other advances. 几乎所有新的测量结果都表明，我们对恒星天文学的理解在某些方面是不完整或简单的。在建筑以来的第一个Chara阵列升级中，佐治亚州立大学的T.Ten。T。Ten Brummelaar博士和合作者已经仔细地考虑了增强乐器灵敏度的最具成本效益的方法。 他们打算重新设计尖端倾斜/波前传感器以使用改进的检测器并消除19​​个反射，并通过添加简单的低阶自适应光学（AO）系统来增强波前控制。 总之，对于许多目标，这些修饰应提高〜50倍的敏感性，并且近IR的改善会得到更大的改善。 新的重要研究领域包括高度红色的靶标，例如周围的年轻恒星周围的原月球磁盘，活跃的银河核和近距离二元恒星系统，包括含有中子星和恒星黑洞的二元恒星系统。访问威尔逊山干涉仪的ACCESS可以通过一个开放的天文学托管仪器来遵守一般天文学的consation仪，也可以通过公开的天文学来遵守众所周知的天文学。 通过阵列，Chara正在培训干涉测量领域的下一代科学和技术专家，该设施中出现的科学成果纳入了本科课程以及公共外展活动。 NSF的天文科学部通过其先进的技术和仪器计划提供了升级Wilson Mt. Wilson光学/接近IR干涉仪的资金。