Collaborative Research - A Panchromatic Imaging Survey of the Galactic Bulge

合作研究 - 银河核球的全色成像调查

• 批准号: 1412673
• 负责人: Catherine Pilachowski
• 金额: $ 13.21万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1412673&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Panchromatic; Imaging; Survey

The researchers will study our Milky Way galaxy and the great star clouds of Sagittarius, which are easily visible on a dark summer night, low on the Southern horizon, from the anywhere in the United States. Their observation plan is to precisely measure the colors of stars in the brightest part of the Milky Way, including the bulge of stars near the center of our galaxy. Their scientific target is understanding the origin and history of formation of stars in the bulge. The investigators will use the Dark Energy Camera (currently most powerful on any telescope) on the 4m telescope at the Cerro Tololo observatory in Chile. They will produce a sequence of color images, from infrared, optical to ultraviolet wavelengths. The broader impact of this program has several components. Foremost is providing professional astronomers and public with tools to view the multi-color images online. The investigators will give the public access to the same data as are used by professional astronomers. The investigators will report the results via popular journal articles, public lectures and sky viewing events. The collaboration will use these detailed images of the bulge of our Milky Way to map the structure of its stars, deduce their age and metal content, to shed light on the structure and formation history of the bulge stars. An additional bonus will be detailed images of over 30 globular star clusters in the six filters observed by the collaboration. Over time, the space motions of stars will be measured, enabling study of the stellar orbits that support the structure of the bulge. The bulge of stars surrounding the core of our galaxy was likely formed as the result of three processes, 1) rapid, violent merging within the first billion years after the Big Bang, 2) ongoing mergers of massive stellar clusters and 3) formation from the early disk of the Milky Way, by slower dynamical processes. The collaboration's images and derived measurements, combined with additional studies, have the potential to transform our understanding of the formation of the Galaxy.

研究人员将研究我们的银河系和射手座的巨大星云，在黑暗的夏夜，从美国的任何地方，都可以很容易地看到这些星云。他们的观测计划是精确测量银河系最明亮部分恒星的颜色，包括银河系中心附近的恒星凸起。他们的科学目标是了解凸起中恒星的起源和形成历史。研究人员将在智利Cerro Tololo天文台的4米望远镜上使用暗能量相机(目前是所有望远镜中最强大的)。它们将产生一系列彩色图像，从红外、光学到紫外线。这一计划的更广泛影响有几个组成部分。最重要的是为专业天文学家和公众提供在线查看多色图像的工具。调查人员将向公众提供专业天文学家使用的相同数据。调查人员将通过热门期刊文章、公开讲座和观天活动来报道结果。这次合作将使用这些银河系凸起的详细图像来绘制银河系恒星的结构图，推断它们的年龄和金属含量，以阐明凸起恒星的结构和形成历史。另一个额外的奖励是合作观察到的六个滤镜中超过30个球状星团的详细图像。随着时间的推移，将测量恒星的空间运动，从而能够研究支持凸起结构的恒星轨道。围绕银河系核心的恒星膨胀很可能是三个过程的结果，1)大爆炸后第一个10亿年内快速、猛烈的合并，2)大质量星团的持续合并，3)银河系早期圆盘的形成，通过较慢的动力学过程。合作的图像和衍生的测量，再加上其他研究，有可能改变我们对银河系形成的理解。