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.

在山顶上。威尔逊俯瞰洛杉矶坐落着一个Y形阵列，由六个1米口径的望远镜组成，作为一个光学/近红外干涉仪阵列，基线从33米到331米，或角分辨率优于1毫弧秒。 这远远超过了最大的地面和轨道望远镜的分辨率，甚至比计划在未来十年使用的超大望远镜（ELT）的分辨率还要高出一个数量级。 自从Mt的建造。威尔逊阵列是由格鲁吉亚州立大学的高角分辨率天文学中心（CHARA）于2005年完成的，它产生了第一个直接探测单个星星的重力暗化，第一个晕族星星的角直径，第一个单个主序星星星的图像，以及第一个相互作用的双星的直接图像，以及其他进展。 几乎每一次新的测量都表明，我们对恒星天文学的理解在某些方面是不完整或简单的。Brummelaar及其合作者仔细考虑了提高仪器灵敏度的最具成本效益的方法。 他们打算重新设计倾斜/波阵面传感器，以使用改进的检测器并消除19次反射，并通过添加简单的低阶自适应光学（AO）系统来增强波阵面控制。 这些改进加在一起，对许多目标的灵敏度将提高约50倍，近红外的灵敏度也将有更大的提高。新的重要研究领域包括高度红化的目标，如年轻恒星周围的原行星盘、活动星系核和近距离双星系统，包括那些包含中子星和恒星黑洞的系统。威尔逊干涉仪提供给联合会成员，但也通过国家光学天文台（NOAO）管理的开放分配过程提供给一般天文学界。 通过该阵列，CHARA正在培训干涉测量领域的下一代科学和技术专家，该设施产生的科学成果被纳入本科课程以及公共宣传活动。为升级Mt.威尔逊光学/近红外干涉仪由NSF天文科学部通过其先进技术和仪器计划提供。