MRI: Development of a High Resolution Infrared Spectrograph with a Large Spectral Grasp

MRI：开发具有大光谱抓取能力的高分辨率红外光谱仪

• 批准号: 1229522
• 负责人: Daniel Jaffe
• 金额: $ 68.36万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1229522&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Development; Resolution; Infrared; Spectrograph

Many objects in our Galaxy and in the universe are difficult to observe because their light is obscured by dust between earth and the objects. This is a particular problem for observing in the visual part of the spectrum as the dust is very effective at absorbing and effectively blocking visual light. In order to study objects embedded in dust (often true of the environments where stars and planets are initially formed) telescopes must look in the infrared part of the spectrum as infrared light can more readily penetrate through dust. Dr. Dan Jaffe and his collaborators at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a new technology infrared spectrograph. Spectrographs disperse the light into a band of colors (much like a rainbow) and the resulting "spectrum" can be analyzed to reveal the presence of and identify various atoms and molecules and also to measure the velocities that objects have relative to earth. Dr. Jaffe has developed a new type of diffraction grating (the optical element that disperses the light into its spectrum) that is much more compact and efficient than standard gratings. Thus the new spectrograph is smaller and less expensive than spectrographs of similar capabilities. The new spectrograph will be installed on the McDonald Observatory 2.7-meter telescope for commissioning and initial science verification. Discussions are underway with NSF-funded observatories Gemini and NOAO about the possibility of putting the spectrograph on their larger telescopes which are available to all astronomers though a competivie merit-review process. NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences is funding this work through the Major Research Instrumentation program.

我们银河系和宇宙中的许多物体很难被观察到，因为它们的光被地球和物体之间的尘埃所遮挡。这对于在光谱的可见部分中观察是一个特别的问题，因为灰尘在吸收和有效地阻挡可见光方面非常有效。 为了研究嵌入尘埃中的物体（通常是恒星和行星最初形成的环境），望远镜必须观察光谱的红外部分，因为红外光更容易穿透尘埃。 德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的Dan Jaffe博士和他的合作者开发了一种新技术红外光谱仪。 光谱仪将光分散成一条颜色带（很像彩虹），由此产生的“光谱”可以被分析，以揭示和识别各种原子和分子的存在，并测量物体相对于地球的速度。 Jaffe博士开发了一种新型的衍射光栅（将光分散到其光谱中的光学元件），比标准光栅更紧凑，更高效。 因此，新的摄谱仪比类似功能的摄谱仪更小，更便宜。 新的光谱仪将安装在麦克唐纳天文台2.7米望远镜上进行调试和初步科学验证。 正在与NSF资助的双子座天文台和NOAO讨论将光谱仪放在他们的大型望远镜上的可能性，这些望远镜通过竞争择优评审程序提供给所有天文学家。 美国国家科学基金会的天文科学部通过主要研究仪器计划资助这项工作。