Exploring the Milliarcsecond Frontier: Open access to the renewed CHARA Array

该奖项为位于加利福尼亚州威尔逊山的格鲁吉亚州立大学高角分辨率天文学（CHARA）阵列中心的美国天文学界提供了开放的观测时间。 此次续约可提供比以前更多的时间，每年最多可达100晚。 它还资助工作人员提供专业知识，咨询和培训，以更好地利用提供的CHARA档案数据。 CHARA将继续与美国和国外的研究生培训项目合作，接待本科生、研究生和博士后的技术和科学能力。 CHARA将支持格鲁吉亚州立大学的本科生签名体验计划，并与威尔逊山研究所合作，通过帮助翻新博物馆和其他游客设施，提高每年约7万名游客的体验。 CHARA阵列是一个光学和近红外干涉仪，由六个1米口径的望远镜组成，呈Y形配置，提供15个33至331米的基线和10个独立的闭合相位三角形。 凭借其望远镜的数量和大小、成像能力、基线长度、波长范围和光束组合器所覆盖的光谱分辨率，CHARA阵列是一个独特的强大的毫角秒成像设施，现在正在达到更高的灵敏度和性能水平。 其科学成果继续推进我们对恒星天体物理学、系外行星、尘埃和碎片盘、双星和多星以及新星的理解。 该奖项旨在扩展现有的服务，支持协作和外部用户。 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。

This award provides open observing time access to the U.S. astronomical community on the Georgia State University Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array on Mount Wilson, CA. This renewal makes available more time than before, up to 100 nights per year. It also funds staff to provide expertise, advice, and training for better use of the access provided to archival CHARA data. CHARA will continue to collaborate with graduate training programs in the U.S. and abroad, hosting undergraduate and graduate students and postdocs in technical and scientific capacities. CHARA will support a Georgia State University Signature Experience program for undergraduates, and work with the Mount Wilson Institute to enhance the experience for the roughly 70,000 annual visitors to the mountain, by helping to renovate the museum and other visitor facilities. These broader activities impact development of the STEM workforce and significantly enhance public engagement.The CHARA Array is an optical and near-infrared interferometer consisting of six 1-meter-aperture telescopes in a Y configuration, providing 15 baselines from 33 to 331 meters, and ten independent closure phase triangles. With the number and size of its telescopes, its imaging capabilities, the length of its baselines, the range of wavelength regimes and spectral resolutions covered by its beam combiners, the CHARA Array is a uniquely powerful facility for milliarcsecond imaging that is now reaching even deeper levels of sensitivity and performance. Its scientific results continue to advance our understanding of stellar astrophysics, exoplanets, dust and debris disks, binaries and multiple stars, and novae. This award provides for an expansion of services already in place, supporting both collaboration and external users. It also permits the team to update several aging systems on the mountain, including the aluminizing facilities and the telescope drives.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.