Collaborative Research: Expanding the Dynamical Map of the Milky Way with Asteroseismic Distances

研究人员将通过使用一种名为星震学的新技术来测量到恒星的距离，从而探索我们银河系的结构。星震学是对恒星振荡的研究。通过快速观察恒星表面亮度和运动的变化来测量振荡。研究人员将使用地面望远镜测量数十万颗遥远恒星的亮度变化，以推断它们的距离。然后这些将被用来创建银河系外部区域有史以来最大的3D地图，使人们能够深入了解我们的星系是如何形成和随着时间的推移而变化的。这一结果将有助于将银河系置于其他星系的背景下，从而更全面地了解我们宇宙的起源。研究人员还将为夏威夷本土大学生举办夏季研究体验，目标是增加他们在STEM研究生水平上的代表性。在大规模多目标光谱测量和欧洲航天局盖亚任务提供的精美全天景相结合的推动下，银河天文学进入了黄金时代。然而，仅盖亚距离的范围--因此迄今为止许多重大发现的范围--仅限于相对较近的区域(距离太阳3Kpc)。这个问题的一个解决方案是使用地面瞬变测量，例如NSF支持的兹维基瞬变工厂(ZTF)，它已经扩展到全天网络，寻找快速爆炸现象，如超新星和电磁对应物，以压缩双星合并。研究人员将利用这些正在进行的调查中的恒星光曲线，利用星震学来测量到外银河系中一种特殊类型的恒星--M红巨星的距离。研究人员将利用盖亚与时间域测量和光谱测量的协同作用，将我们银河系的动态地图仅在盖亚上就扩展一个数量级以上。通过将恒星距离测量与模拟的合成观测相结合，研究人员将使用新的动态地图来揭示外银河盘的结构、动力学和形成历史。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The investigators will explore the structure of our Milky Way galaxy by measuring the distances to stars using a novel technique called Asteroseismology, which is the study of oscillations in stars. Oscillations are measured by rapid observations of the changes in the brightness and motions of the star’s surface. The investigators will use ground-based telescopes to measure brightness variations in hundreds of thousands of distant stars to infer their distances. These will then be used to create the largest 3D map ever constructed of the outer regions of the Milky Way, enabling insights into how our galaxy has formed and changed over time. The results will help place the Milky Way in the context of other galaxies, leading to a more complete understanding of the origin of our Universe. The investigators will also host a summer research experience for native Hawaiian college students, with the goal of increasing their representation in STEM at the graduate level.Galactic astronomy has entered a golden era, driven by the combination of large-scale multi-object spectroscopic surveys and the exquisite all-sky view provided by the European Space Agency’s Gaia Mission. However, the range of Gaia distances alone—and hence that of many of the major discoveries so far—is limited to a relatively nearby region (3 kpc from the Sun). A solution to this problem is the use of ground-based transient surveys, such as the NSF supported Zwicky Transient Factory (ZTF), which have expanded into all-sky networks hunting for rapid explosive phenomena such as supernovae and electromagnetic counterparts to compact binary mergers. The investigators will use asteroseismology to measure distances to a special type of star, M red giant stars, in the outer Galaxy using stellar light curves from these ongoing surveys. The investigators will exploit the synergy of Gaia with time-domain surveys and spectroscopic surveys to expand the dynamical map of our Galaxy by more than an order of magnitude over Gaia alone. By combining the star distance measurements with synthetic observations of their simulations, the investigators will use the new dynamical map to unveil the structure, dynamics, and formation history of the outer Galactic disk.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.