A Stellar Student Experience in the Lone Star State

孤星州一流的学生体验

• 批准号: 2219165
• 负责人: Juan Madrid
• 金额: $ 9.74万
• 依托单位: The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-01 至 2024-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2219165&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Stellar; Student; Experience; Lone; Star

This award is funded in whole under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The foundations of a new partnership between the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) and the McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas at Austin will be established. This program will provide students from a Hispanic-Serving Institution (UTRGV) the opportunity to carry out research at a world-class astronomical observatory. The McDonald Observatory is home to eight professional telescopes including the 11-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET), the largest optical telescope in North America. The Observatory is located in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, which offer some of the darkest night skies in the 48 contiguous states.UTRGV students will be trained in optical photometry and spectroscopy with state-of-the-art astronomical instrumentation at McDonald Observatory. Using the McDonald telescopes to take imaging data for a few selected nearby galaxies, students will make a systematic study to determine the nova rate of nearby galaxies, a rate which is currently poorly constrained. Novae are particularly luminous astronomical transient events and nova rates of nearby galaxies give an insight on stellar evolution and in particular stellar population synthesis models.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.

该奖项由《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)提供全部资金。德克萨斯大学里奥格兰德山谷(UTRGV)和德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校麦克唐纳天文台之间的新伙伴关系的基础将建立起来。该计划将为西班牙裔服务机构(UTRGV)的学生提供在世界级天文台进行研究的机会。麦克唐纳天文台有8台专业望远镜，其中包括11米长的霍比-埃伯利望远镜(HET)，这是北美最大的光学望远镜。天文台位于得克萨斯州西部的戴维斯山脉，那里有48个毗邻州中最暗的夜空。UTRGV的学生将在麦克唐纳天文台接受光学光度学和光谱学方面的培训，并使用最先进的天文仪器。学生们将使用麦克唐纳望远镜获取几个选定的附近星系的成像数据，并进行系统研究，以确定附近星系的新星率，这一速度目前受到的限制很差。新星是特别明亮的天文瞬变事件，附近星系的新星率提供了关于恒星演化的洞察，特别是恒星种群合成模型。这一奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定任务，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。