MRI: Development of a Fiber-Linked Mobile Telescope Facility for the CHARA Array

大多数恒星都很遥远，即使是最大的望远镜也只能看到点。要近距离观察这些恒星，需要传统的望远镜，而这种望远镜体积太大，造价也太高。相反，天文学家使用一组更小的分散望远镜。它们一起工作，就像一个单独的望远镜，与组件的分离一样大。其中最好的是位于加州威尔逊山天文台的CHARA阵列。CHARA阵列有六个望远镜，沿着三条臂成对地排列在固定的位置。每台望远镜将星光通过长铝管送入中央实验室进行分析。每一对望远镜对天空中物体的特定大小和方向都很敏感。因此，CHARA阵列在与固定望远镜位置相关的尺寸范围内工作最佳。在更大和更小的距离上需要其他的地点来研究更小和更大的恒星。该计划将通过在阵列中增加一个移动望远镜来启用这些新站点。这种可移动的望远镜将通过光纤电缆而不是笨重的管道发送星光。这个由七台望远镜组成的系统将使天文学家能够绘制恒星表面的详细地图。这将有助于将我们的太阳置于恒星质量、年龄和磁场活动的背景下。它还将帮助培训年轻科学家掌握探索外层空间所需的技术。乔治亚州立大学的高角分辨率天文学中心（CHARA）在加州的威尔逊山天文台运行一个光学/近红外干涉阵列。CHARA阵列有6个1米口径的y形望远镜，提供从34米到331米的15个基线。凭借其望远镜的数量和大小，基线的长度以及光束合成器覆盖的波长范围，CHARA阵列是一个独特的强大设备，用于毫角秒成像。本提案的目标是开发一种新的仪器，将CHARA阵列的空间动态范围扩大十倍。CHARA迈克尔逊阵列探路者（CMAP）仪器将是一个移动望远镜，通过光纤技术的新应用与阵列望远镜连接。通过将移动望远镜靠近具有最小基线的一对望远镜，CMAP仪器将使我们能够绘制大恒星的表面，并且将移动望远镜移动到更远的位置将提供测量小恒星细节的手段。利用光纤干涉测量技术对恒星进行探索，将为绘制恒星表面的前所未有的细节提供手段。CMAP仪器将帮助培训年轻科学家掌握未来地球和太空干涉仪所需的技术。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。

Most stars are so distant that even the largest telescopes show them as no more than dots. To see the stars close up would require conventional telescopes that are too large and too expensive to construct. Instead, astronomers use a collection of smaller and distributed telescopes. These work together like a single telescope as large as the separation of the components. One of the best of these is the CHARA Array located at Mount Wilson Observatory in California. The CHARA Array has six telescopes arranged in pairs in fixed locations along three arms. Each telescope sends starlight through long aluminum tubes into a central laboratory for analysis. Each telescope pair is sensitive to a specific size and direction of an object in the sky. Thus, the CHARA Array works best for a size range that is related to the fixed telescope locations. Other sites are needed at larger and smaller separations to study smaller and larger stars. This program will enable these new sites by adding a mobile telescope to the Array. The movable telescope will send starlight through fiber optic cables instead of a bulky tube. This system of seven telescopes will let astronomers make detailed maps of stellar surfaces. This will help place our own Sun within the context of stellar mass, age, and magnetic activity. It will also help train young scientists in the technologies needed to explore outer space.Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) operates an optical/near-infrared interferometric array at Mt Wilson Observatory in California. The CHARA Array has six 1 m aperture telescopes in a Y-shaped configuration providing 15 baselines from 34 to 331 meters. With the number and size of its telescopes, the length of its baselines, and the range of wavelength covered by its beam combiners, the CHARA Array is a uniquely powerful facility for milliarcsecond imaging. The goal of this proposal is to develop a new instrument that will expand the spatial dynamic range of the CHARA Array by a factor of ten. The CHARA Michelson Array Pathfinder (CMAP) instrument will be a mobile telescope connected to the Array telescopes through a novel application of fiber optics technology. By placing the mobile telescope close to the pair of telescopes with the smallest baseline, the CMAP instrument will allow us to map the surfaces of large stars, and moving the mobile telescope to distant locations will provide the means to measure details of small stars. This exploration of stars using fiber optics for interferometry will provide the means to map stellar surfaces in unprecedented detail. The CMAP instrument will help train young scientists in the technologies needed for future interferometers on Earth and in space.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.