Concept Feasibility Study for a High-Performance Telescope Array

非常暗淡的星系挑战了我们对所有星系如何形成的理解。该项目将建造一个最适合研究这类星系的望远镜。它将使用几个折射望远镜组成一个更大的望远镜。该望远镜将用于研究我们银河系和其他星系的外围。该望远镜还将用于搜索附近恒星周围的类地行星，甚至亚地球质量的行星。将提供给教育工作者和公众宣传。该项目将开发、实施和推广一种新的软件基础设施，使人们能够按小时或按观测分配对望远镜阵列的访问。最近的发展表明：（1）超低表面亮度星系对星系的形成和演化情景构成了重大挑战;（2）由现成的折射望远镜建造的望远镜阵列非常适合识别和研究这些星系。此外，由于快速发展的商用CMOS技术，非常大格式（150兆像素）、非常快的读取时间（小于一秒）、非常低的读取噪声（小于一个电子）的CMOS相机现在才变得可用。该项目将利用这些发展，在南半球建立一个高性能望远镜阵列，以前所未有的60秒的快速节奏获得天空区域的深层图像。该阵列的低表面亮度灵敏度将使研究银河系，LMC，SMC和其他附近星系的非常外部区域成为可能，并检测附近星系团和现场的超扩散星系。该阵列的快速节奏将使探测在白色矮星的可居住区中过境的类地行星成为可能，并研究地球和亚地球质量的太阳系外行星和小行星朝向银河系凸起的微透镜特征。这个项目有很高的潜力产生意想不到的发现。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Very dim galaxies challenge our understanding of how all galaxies formed. This project will construct a telescope optimized for studying such galaxies. It will use several refracting telescopes to form the equivalent of one larger telescope. This telescope will be used to study the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy and other galaxies. The telescope will also be used to search for Earth-like and even sub-Earth-mass planets around nearby stars. It will be made available to educators and for public outreach. The project will develop, implement and promote a new software infrastructure that allows access to the telescope array to be allocated on either a per-hour or per-observation basis. Credits for access to the telescope array will be distributed to researchers, educators, and public outreach institutions.Recent developments indicate that (1) ultra-low-surface-brightness galaxies pose a significant challenge to galaxy formation and evolution scenarios and (2) telescope arrays built from off-the-shelf refracting telescopes are ideally suited to identifying and studying these galaxies. Further, due to rapidly developing commercial CMOS technology, very large-format (150 Mega-Pixel), very rapid-read-time (less than one second), very low-read-noise (less than one electron) CMOS cameras are just now becoming available. This project will exploit these developments by building a high-performance telescope array, located in the Southern Hemisphere, to obtain deep images of regions of the sky at an unprecedentedly rapid cadence of 60 seconds. The low-surface-brightness sensitivity of the array will enable studying the very outer regions of the Milky Way, LMC, SMC, and other nearby galaxies and detecting ultra-diffuse galaxies in nearby clusters and in the field. The rapid cadence of the array will enable detecting transiting Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of white dwarfs and studying microlensing signatures of Earth- and sub-Earth-mass extra-solar planets and asteroids toward the Galactic bulge. This project has a high potential to yield unexpected discoveries.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.