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

大多数恒星都非常遥远，即使是最大的望远镜也只能看到一些小点。 要近距离观察这些恒星，需要使用传统的望远镜，而这些望远镜太大、太昂贵，难以建造。 相反，天文学家使用一组较小的分布式望远镜。它们一起工作，就像一个单独的望远镜，大小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，沿着沿着三个臂在固定位置成对排列。每台望远镜都通过长长的铝管将星光送入中央实验室进行分析。 每对望远镜都对天空中物体的特定大小和方向敏感。 因此，CHARA阵列最适合与固定望远镜位置相关的尺寸范围。需要在更大和更小的间隔处建立其他站点来研究更小和更大的恒星。该方案将通过在阵列上增加一个移动的望远镜来启用这些新站点。可移动的望远镜将通过光纤电缆而不是笨重的管子发送星光。这个由七个望远镜组成的系统将使天文学家能够绘制出恒星表面的详细地图。 这将有助于将我们自己的太阳置于恒星质量，年龄和磁场活动的背景下。 格鲁吉亚州立大学的高角分辨率天文学中心在加州的威尔逊山天文台操作一个光学/近红外干涉仪阵列。CHARA阵列有六个1米口径的望远镜，呈Y形配置，提供34至331米的15条基线。凭借其望远镜的数量和大小，基线的长度以及光束组合器所覆盖的波长范围，CHARA阵列是一个独特的强大的毫角秒成像设施。该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10倍。CHARA迈克尔逊阵列探路者（CMAP）仪器将是一个移动的望远镜，通过光纤技术的新应用与阵列望远镜相连。通过将移动的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，而将移动的望远镜移动到遥远的位置将提供测量小恒星细节的手段。 这种利用光纤干涉测量法对恒星进行的探索将提供以前所未有的细节绘制恒星表面的手段。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NSF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.