The Deep Sky Every Minute: Developing the Argus Array

每分钟探索深空：开发阿格斯阵列

• 批准号: 2034381
• 负责人: Nicholas Law
• 金额: $ 93.74万
• 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: 2020-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2034381&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Deep; Sky; Every; Minute; Developing

The Argus Array is planned to be the first large optical telescope to explore the entire deep sky simultaneously. Consisting of 650 moderate-aperture telescopes multiplexed into a common hemispherical dome, the Argus Array will have the equivalent collecting area of a 5m telescope, and the survey speed of the Vera Rubin Observatory, but will cover the sky in a very different way. The Array achieves deep imaging by observing every part of the sky at minute-cadence for 6-8 hours every night. Over five years, the Array will build a two-color, million-epoch movie of the northern sky, giving the astronomical community the unprecedented ability to follow the evolution of every brighter than 23rd-magnitude time-variable source across the sky simultaneously. This award will support construction of a prototype system to validate the Argus Array hardware and software design, while pioneering its science surveys. In terms of broader impacts, this project will 1) directly train two graduate students in big-data analysis techniques and astronomical instrumentation; 2) provide the opportunity for seven graduate students (four first-generation college) to more broadly participate in experimental astrophysics; 3) build the infrastructure to enable dozens of graduate students around the country to participate in a new large survey; 4) involve large numbers of undergraduates in professional astronomical instrumentation; 5) prototype the full Argus Array's major broader impacts projects, including the professional design of a world-class time-domain astronomy planetarium show and the development of middle-school MakerSpace projects to inspire the next generations of astronomical instrument builders.The Argus Array is a “fly’s eye” system that is being designed to explore a unique parameter space, with a cadence hundreds of times faster than any other deep sky survey. The system will be able to follow-up multiwavelength triggers orders of magnitude faster than current tiling astronomical surveys, monitor 300 million stars for planet-induced microlensing events, occultations, flares and other variability, search hundreds of thousands of white dwarfs for transiting planets and debris, detect supernovae early enough to probe the explosion's interactions with their progenitor environments, and will measure rotation rates, shapes and outburst rates for newly-discovered interstellar asteroids and comets as they cross the solar system.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.

阿格斯阵列计划成为第一个同时探索整个深空的大型光学望远镜。阿格斯阵列由 650 个中等孔径望远镜组成，复用在一个共同的半球形圆顶中，将具有与 5 m 望远镜相当的收集面积，以及维拉鲁宾天文台的测量速度，但将以一种非常不同的方式覆盖天空。该阵列通过每晚 6-8 小时以分钟为单位观测天空的各个部分来实现深度成像。在五年内，该阵列将构建一部双色、百万纪元的北方天空电影，使天文学界拥有前所未有的能力，能够同时跟踪天空中每一个亮度超过 23 级的时变源的演化。该奖项将支持原型系统的构建，以验证阿格斯阵列硬件和软件设计，同时开拓其科学调查。 从更广泛的影响来看，该项目将1）直接培训两名研究生大数据分析技术和天文仪器； 2）为七名研究生（四名第一代学院）提供更广泛地参与实验天体物理的机会； 3）建立基础设施，使全国数十名研究生能够参与新的大型调查； 4）吸引大量本科生从事天文仪器专业； 5) 制作完整的阿格斯阵列的主要更广泛影响项目的原型，包括世界级时域天文学天文馆表演的专业设计和中学 MakerSpace 项目的开发，以激励下一代天文仪器建造者。阿格斯阵列是一个“蝇眼”系统，旨在探索独特的参数空间，其节奏比任何其他深空调查快数百倍。该系统将能够以比当前平铺天文勘测快几个数量级的速度跟踪多波长触发，监测3亿颗恒星的行星引起的微透镜事件、掩星、耀斑和其他变化，搜索数十万颗白矮星以寻找凌日行星和碎片，及早探测超新星以探测爆炸与其前身环境的相互作用，并测量旋转 新发现的星际小行星和彗星穿过太阳系时的速率、形状和爆发速率。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

Low-cost Access to the Deep, High-cadence Sky: the Argus Optical Array

• DOI: 10.1088/1538-3873/ac4811
• 发表时间: 2021-07
• 期刊: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
• 影响因子: 3.5
• 作者: N. Law;H. Corbett;N. Galliher;R. Gonzalez;A. Vásquez;Glenn Walters;Lawrence Machia;J. Ratzloff-J.-Ratzl

Argus Optical Array motion control: tracking the entire sky with a large monolithic array telescope

阿格斯光学阵列运动控制：用大型单片阵列望远镜跟踪整个天空

• DOI: 10.1117/12.2630454
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IX
• 作者: Vasquez Soto, Alan;Law, Nicholas M.;Corbett, Hank;Galliher, Nathan W.;Gonzalez, Ramses;Machia, Lawrence;Walters, Glenn
• 通讯作者: Walters, Glenn

Packing the sky: coverage optimization and evaluation for large telescope arrays

填充天空：大型望远镜阵列的覆盖优化和评估

• DOI: 10.1117/12.2630082
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IX
• 作者: Galliher, Nathan W.;Law, Nicholas M.;Corbett, Henry T.;Gonzalez, Ramses;Machia, Lawrence;Vasquez Soto, Alan
• 通讯作者: Vasquez Soto, Alan

The inside-out, upside-down telescope: the Argus Array’s new pseudofocal design

由内而外、上下颠倒的望远镜：阿格斯阵列的全新伪焦设计

• DOI: 10.1117/12.2630037
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IX
• 作者: Law, Nicholas M.;Vasquez Soto, Alan;Corbett, Hank;Galliher, Nathan W.;Gonzalez, Ramses;Machia, Lawrence;Walters, Glenn
• 通讯作者: Walters, Glenn

The Argus Array Technology Demonstrator: rapid prototyping of core technologies for an all-sky multiplexed survey telescope

阿格斯阵列技术演示器：全天复用巡天望远镜核心技术的快速原型设计

• DOI: 10.1117/12.2629489
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes IX
• 作者: Corbett, Henry T.;Vasquez Soto, Alan;Machia, Lawrence;Galliher, Nathan W.;Gonzalez, Ramses;Walters, Glenn;Law, Nicholas M.
• 通讯作者: Law, Nicholas M.