Support for the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope Facility

支持基特峰国家天文台 (KPNO) WIYN 3.5 米望远镜设施

• 批准号: 1559596
• 负责人: Charles Mattias Mountain
• 金额: $ 300.81万
• 依托单位: Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1559596&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Support; Kitt; Peak; National; Observatory

Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) will operate and maintain the WIYN 3.5-m telescopelocated near Tucson, Arizona, during the FY16 through FY18 period to enable the following three key activities: (a) approximately 270 nights for scientific research related to the study of planets orbiting other stars (so-called exoplanets) and their host stars, within the framework of the joint NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research (NN-EXPLORE) program; (b) FY18 installation of the Extreme Precision Doppler Spectrometer (EPDS), to be used to determine the masses of exoplanets discovered by NASA space missions such as Kepler and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS); and (c) essential corrective and preventive technical maintenance as well as minor technology upgrades as needed for the WIYN facility and its instrumentation. KPNO operates and maintains WIYN on behalf of the WIYN partnership, whose equity members are the U. of Wisconsin, Indiana U., and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), joined by operational partner U. of Missouri-Columbia. KPNO is a unit of NOAO, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA) under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF).Intellectual Merit: It is now well established that many stellar systems in our Milky Way host one or more exoplanets. The mix of host stellar system properties (single vs. multiple stars, stellar chemical composition and temperature, etc.) and exoplanet system properties (e.g., number of exoplanets per star, relative arrangements within each system, exoplanet composition) is astonishing and largely unanticipated. Before the origins of that mix can be understood, the nature of the exoplanets and their host stars must be understood. The current observational goal is to classify exoplanets as gas-dominated (like Neptune), ice-dominated, or rock-dominated (like Earth) and then compare those classifications to measured stellar properties. Surely, they must be tightly connected since the stellar and exoplanet systems formed from the same cloud of atomic and molecular gas. During the period of this program, WIYN will be used primarily to study the properties of exoplanet host stars. After EPDS is installed, WIYN will be used to measure exoplanet mass, which is required to determine if an exoplanet is primarily gaseous, icy, or rocky. Research enabled by this program will strengthen the foundations for identifying and characterizing Earth-like exoplanets in the nearby cosmos.Broader Impacts: Open access for enquiry-based research via peer review and open data for all will allow scientists and citizens to engage in the NOAO/WIYN research enterprise no matter who they are or where they work. The EPDS story, its technology as well as its measures of exoplanet mass and what we learn from that, will be a central public engagement opportunity at the Kitt Peak Visitor Center, which receives more than 40,000 visitors per year. The EPDS project brings together two federal agencies, three US federal research centers, and several US universities as well as highly specialized industrial partners. Many participants are early career scientists, some as early as undergraduate. In turn, the EPDS project will transform the WIYN into one of the premier radial velocity survey facilities in the world.

基特峰国家天文台（KPNO）将在2016财年至2018财年期间运营和维护位于亚利桑那州图森附近的WIYN 3.5米望远镜，以实现以下三项关键活动：（a）约270个夜晚用于与研究绕其他恒星运行的行星有关的科学研究（所谓的系外行星）及其宿主恒星，在美国宇航局-国家科学基金会系外行星观测研究联合框架内，（NN-EXPLORE）方案;（B）2018财政年度安装极精密多普勒光谱仪，用于确定美国航天局开普勒和凌日系外行星勘测卫星等空间飞行任务发现的系外行星的质量;以及（c）必要的纠正性和预防性技术维护以及WIYN设施及其仪器所需的小型技术升级。KPNO代表WIYN合伙企业运营和维护WIYN，WIYN合伙企业的股权成员是美国政府。来自威斯康星州，印第安纳州，和国家光学天文台（NOAO），以及合作伙伴U。密苏里-哥伦比亚KPNO是NOAO的一个单位，由大学天文学研究协会运营。（AURA）根据与美国国家科学基金会（NSF）达成的合作协议，在银河系中的许多恒星系统都拥有一颗或多颗系外行星。宿主恒星系统性质的混合（单星与多星，恒星化学成分和温度等）和系外行星系统特性（例如，每颗星星的系外行星数量，每个系统内的相对排列，系外行星的组成）是惊人的，很大程度上是意料之外的。在了解这种混合的起源之前，必须了解系外行星及其宿主恒星的性质。目前的观测目标是将系外行星分类为以气体为主（如海王星），以冰为主或以岩石为主（如地球），然后将这些分类与测量的恒星属性进行比较。当然，它们一定是紧密相连的，因为恒星和系外行星系统是由同一团原子和分子气体形成的。在该计划期间，WIYN将主要用于研究系外行星宿主恒星的性质。安装EPDS后，WIYN将用于测量系外行星的质量，这是确定系外行星主要是气态、冰态还是岩石所必需的。更广泛的影响：通过同行评审和开放数据，开放基于查询的研究，使科学家和公民能够参与NOAO/WIYN的研究事业，无论他们是谁，也无论他们在哪里工作。EPDS的故事，它的技术以及它对系外行星质量的测量以及我们从中学到的东西，将成为基特峰游客中心的一个中心公众参与机会，该中心每年接待超过40，000名游客。EPDS项目汇集了两个联邦机构、三个美国联邦研究中心、几所美国大学以及高度专业化的工业合作伙伴。许多参与者是早期的职业科学家，有些甚至是本科生。反过来，EPDS项目将使WIYN成为世界上最重要的径向速度测量设施之一。