Innovative Morphological Analysis with a Panchromatic Galaxy Atlas Enabled by Citizen-Scientist Volunteers

公民科学家志愿者利用全色星系图谱进行创新形态分析

• 批准号: 1412596
• 负责人: David Thilker
• 金额: $ 46.51万
• 依托单位: Johns Hopkins University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1412596&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Innovative; Morphological; Analysis; Panchromatic; Galaxy

This proposal undertakes an innovative galaxy survey meant to become a treasury for astronomers and, just as importantly, a valuable science education platform for the public. It primarily uses a data set from the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) telescope located on Maui, Hawaii. This data set, called the "PS1 Optical Galaxy Survey (POGS)" covers 75% of the sky, and will be combined with data from the ultraviolet, infrared, and radio regimes. When combined, this information will provide transformational insight regarding the variety and current state of galaxy structure in the nearby Universe. In order to accomplish this work, which is computationally intensive and also requires individual inspection, the proposers plan to use involvement of volunteer citizen scientists. This results in a natural, world-wide opportunity for astronomy education. In fact, this work is already underway, with a rapidly growing user base (5,800 volunteers at present). In addition, summer mentoring of female high school students as participants in science analysis of POGS products, providing an opportunity to train an underrepresented group in the STEM fields in scientific methods.To measure galactic structural properties unbiased by the mask of recent star formation and dust, the proposers are conducting a citizen-scientist enabled nearby galaxy survey based on the unprecedented optical imaging from Pan-STARRS1 (PS1), but also incorporating ancillary multi-wavelength data from the ultraviolet and infrared regimes (via GALEX and WISE). The PS1 Optical Galaxy Survey (POGS) will cover 3pi steradians (75% of the sky), about twice the footprint of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). For each cataloged galaxy, publicly-distributed computing contributed by thousands of volunteers will enable pixel-by-pixel spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting, which in turn provides key physical parameters such as the local stellar mass surface density, star formation rate (SFR), and dust attenuation. Sufficiently nearby galaxies will be processed using complete UV-optical-IR SED information as part of a base sample, whereas distant but more numerous galaxies will be processed with optical only data due to the resolution of ancillary observations. With pixel SED fitting output the proposers will then constrain parametric models of galaxy structure and measure non-parametric morphology indicators in a more meaningful way than ordinarily achieved, by operating on images of estimated physical parameters.

这项提案承担了一项创新的星系调查，旨在成为天文学家的宝库，同样重要的是，为公众提供一个有价值的科学教育平台。它主要使用了位于夏威夷毛伊岛的Pan-STARRS1 （PS1）望远镜的数据集。这个数据集被称为“PS1光学星系调查（POGS）”，覆盖了75%的天空，并将与紫外线、红外线和无线电系统的数据相结合。结合起来，这些信息将提供关于附近宇宙中星系结构的多样性和当前状态的变革性见解。为了完成这项计算量大且需要个人检查的工作，提议者计划利用志愿公民科学家的参与。这为天文学教育提供了一个自然的、世界性的机会。事实上，这项工作已经在进行中，用户基础迅速增长（目前有5800名志愿者）。此外，夏季指导女高中生参与POGS产品的科学分析，为STEM领域中代表性不足的群体提供科学方法培训的机会。为了不受最近恒星形成和尘埃的影响而测量星系的结构特性，提议者正在进行一项公民科学家支持的附近星系调查，该调查基于Pan-STARRS1 （PS1）前所未有的光学成像，但也结合了来自紫外线和红外线的辅助多波长数据（通过GALEX和WISE）。PS1光学星系巡天（POGS）将覆盖3个立体度（75%的天空），大约是斯隆数字巡天（SDSS）的两倍。对于每一个被编录的星系，由数千名志愿者贡献的公开分布式计算将实现逐像素的光谱能量分布（SED）拟合，从而提供关键的物理参数，如本地恒星质量表面密度、恒星形成率（SFR）和尘埃衰减。足够近的星系将使用完整的紫外-光学-红外SED信息作为基础样本的一部分进行处理，而遥远但数量更多的星系将仅使用光学数据进行处理，因为辅助观测的分辨率很高。通过像素SED拟合输出，提议者将约束星系结构的参数模型，并通过对估计物理参数的图像进行操作，以比通常更有意义的方式测量非参数形态指标。