Fast Transients, Superflares and Exoplanet Habitability: Exploring the Minute-Cadence Sky with the Evryscope Fast Transient Engine

快速瞬变、超级耀斑和系外行星宜居性：使用 Evryscope 快速瞬变引擎探索分钟节奏的天空

• 批准号: 2009645
• 负责人: Nicholas Law
• 金额: $ 60.64万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2009645&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Fast; Transients; Superflares; Exoplanet; Habitability

This project will observe the entire night sky to search for short time scale changes (less than two minutes) in the brightness of objects using small telescopes located in the northern and southern hemispheres. The researchers will develop software to detect these changes in real time and send alerts to other astronomers to enable them to follow up with their own observations. The project will study giant flares on stars that could impact planets in orbit about them, and also to study the rate of flashes that are the result of materials being burnt up in the earth's atmosphere. Other astronomers will be helped by receiving alerts to such changes in the sky. The scientists involved in this project are also developing a planetarium exhibit to provide the public with information on the evolving field of time resolved astronomy.Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will conduct a systematic investigation of the entire rapid transient sky using Evryscopes that will be coordinated with spectroscopic observations using the SOAR Telescope. The Evryscope telescopes, coupled with the Evryscope Fast Transit Engine (EFTE), a newly-developed low-latency transient-detection pipeline, are capable of searching for rapid transient events over 16,500 square degrees of the sky every two minutes. This will be coupled with a machine-learning vetting system that will reduce false positives to low levels. This new capability will enable the high-speed detection and follow-up for events such as superflares. These are giant stellar flares that have serious, but as-yet poorly-constrained, effects on the habitability of planets around cool stars. Additionally, the researchers will perform the first detailed characterization of transient orbital-debris fast-flashes, which form an important foreground for high cadence sky surveys.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.

该项目将使用位于北半球和南半球的小型望远镜观察整个夜空，以寻找物体亮度的短时尺度（不到两分钟）变化。研究人员将开发软件来实时检测这些变化，并向其他天文学家发送警报，以便他们能够跟进自己的观察结果。 该项目将研究恒星上的巨型耀斑，这些耀斑可能会影响其周围轨道上的行星，还将研究由于地球大气层中的物质燃烧而产生的闪光率。 其他天文学家将通过接收有关天空变化的警报而得到帮助。 参与该项目的科学家们还在开发一个天文馆展览，为公众提供有关不断发展的时间分辨天文学领域的信息。北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的研究人员将使用 Evryscopes 对整个快速瞬变天空进行系统调查，并将与 SOAR 望远镜的光谱观测相配合。 Evryscope 望远镜与新开发的低延迟瞬变探测管道 Evryscope 快速瞬变引擎 (EFTE) 相结合，能够每两分钟搜索超过 16,500 平方度天空的快速瞬变事件。 这将与机器学习审查系统相结合，将误报率降低到较低水平。这项新功能将使超级耀斑等事件的高速检测和跟踪成为可能。 这些巨大的恒星耀斑对冷恒星周围行星的宜居性产生了严重但尚未受到充分限制的影响。此外，研究人员将对瞬态轨道碎片快速闪光进行首次详细表征，这构成了高节奏天空调查的重要前景。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Orbital Foregrounds for Ultra-short Duration Transients

超短持续时间瞬变的轨道前景

• DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/abbee5
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: The Astrophysical Journal
• 作者: Corbett, Hank;Law, Nicholas M.;Soto, Alan Vasquez;Howard, Ward S.;Glazier, Amy;Gonzalez, Ramses;Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.;Galliher, Nathan;Fors, Octavi;Quimby, Robert
• 通讯作者: Quimby, Robert