Collaborative Research: Finding the Double Sunsets - Stellar Multiplicity Across the Milky Way Halo

与我们的太阳不同，银河系中的许多恒星都有一个或多个伴星。这些多恒星系统不仅能形成电影《星球大战》中卢克·天行者看到的美丽的双重日落，还能帮助天文学家了解恒星是如何从气体云中形成的。这些恒星随着时间而变化，并影响它们周围的环境。然而，天文学家对恒星“多样性”的理解仅限于一些基本特性，比如在银河系中有伴星的恒星的比例。研究人员将利用两次广泛的天文调查中已经获得的数据来了解更多关于多星系统的信息。研究人员将了解恒星的大小和质量如何取决于它们的年龄、化学成分和星系环境。研究人员将开发一种新的统计技术，从每颗恒星3-5次观测中收集这些信息。不同的数据集将跨越整个银河系，从它的圆盘到它的光环，也到矮星系卫星。该项目将是同类项目中第一个在如此多的不同环境中了解多星系统细节的项目。调查人员将举办讲习班，目标是来自当地学校的初中和高中教育工作者，分享使用在线工具进行研究的经验。他们的努力将加强以教育工作者为中心的数学、物理和计算机科学教学资源。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Unlike our own Sun, many stars in the Milky Way have one or more companions. Not only do these multiple star systems make for the pretty double sunsets like that seen by Luke Skywalker in the film "Star Wars", they also help astronomers to learn how stars form from gas clouds. These stars change with time and affect their surroundings. Yet astronomers' understanding of stellar "multiplicity" is limited to just a few basic properties, like the fraction of stars that have companions within the Milky Way. The investigators will use already available data from two extensive astronomical surveys to learn much more about multiple star systems. The investigators will learn how the stellar sizes and masses depend on their ages, chemical composition and galactic environment. The investigators will develop a new statistical technique to glean this information from as few as 3-5 observations per star. The different data sets will span the entire Milky Way, from its disk to its halo and also to dwarf galaxy satellites. The program will be the first of its kind to learn the details of multiple star systems in so many different environments.The investigators will host workshops, aimed at middle- and high-school educators from local schools, to share the experience of research using on-line tools. Their efforts will enhance an educator-focused resource for teaching topics in mathematics, physics and computer science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.