Collaborative Research - A Panchromatic Imaging Survey of the Galactic Bulge

研究人员将研究我们的银河系和人马座的巨大恒星云，在漆黑的夏夜，从美国的任何地方都可以很容易地看到它们，它们位于南方地平线的低处。他们的观测计划是精确测量银河系最亮部分的恒星的颜色，包括我们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。研究人员将在智利塞罗·托洛洛天文台的4米望远镜上使用暗能量相机（目前所有望远镜中最强大的）。它们将产生一系列的彩色图像，从红外线、可见光到紫外线。该计划的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。研究人员将通过流行的期刊文章、公开讲座和天空观测活动来报告研究结果。这次合作将利用这些银河系凸起的详细图像来绘制恒星的结构，推断它们的年龄和金属含量，从而揭示凸起恒星的结构和形成历史。额外的奖励将是通过合作观察到的六个滤镜中30多个球状星团的详细图像。随着时间的推移，恒星的空间运动将被测量，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隆起可能是三个过程的结果：1)大爆炸后第一个十亿年内快速、剧烈的合并；2)大质量星团的持续合并；3)银河系早期盘的形成，是一个较慢的动力学过程。该合作项目的图像和衍生的测量结果，加上额外的研究，有可能改变我们对银河系形成的理解。

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.