Collaborative Research: Expanding the Dynamical Map of the Milky Way with Asteroseismic Distances

研究人员将利用一种名为星震学的新技术来测量恒星的距离，从而探索我们银河系的结构。星震学是一种研究恒星振荡的技术。振荡是通过对恒星表面亮度和运动变化的快速观测来测量的。研究人员将使用地面望远镜测量数十万颗遥远恒星的亮度变化，以推断它们的距离。然后，这些将被用来创建银河系外部区域有史以来最大的3D地图，使我们能够深入了解我们的星系是如何形成和随时间变化的。这些结果将有助于将银河系置于其他星系的背景下，从而更全面地了解我们宇宙的起源。研究人员还将为夏威夷本土大学生举办一次暑期研究体验，目的是增加他们在研究生阶段在STEM领域的代表性。在大规模多目标光谱调查和欧洲航天局盖亚任务提供的精致的全天视图的结合的推动下，银河系天文学进入了一个黄金时代。然而，盖亚距离的范围——以及迄今为止许多重大发现的范围——都局限于一个相对较近的区域（距离太阳3kpc）。解决这个问题的一个办法是使用地面瞬态巡天，比如美国国家科学基金会支持的兹威基瞬态工厂（ZTF），它已经扩展到全天网络，寻找快速爆炸现象，比如超新星和紧凑型双星合并的电磁对应物。研究人员将使用星震学来测量到外星系中一种特殊类型的恒星M红巨星的距离，利用这些正在进行的调查所得的恒星光曲线。研究人员将利用盖亚与时域调查和光谱调查的协同作用，将我们银河系的动态地图扩展到盖亚单独的一个数量级以上。通过将恒星距离测量与模拟的综合观测相结合，研究人员将使用新的动态图来揭示外星系盘的结构、动力学和形成历史。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。

The investigators will explore the structure of our Milky Way galaxy by measuring the distances to stars using a novel technique called Asteroseismology, which is the study of oscillations in stars. Oscillations are measured by rapid observations of the changes in the brightness and motions of the star’s surface. The investigators will use ground-based telescopes to measure brightness variations in hundreds of thousands of distant stars to infer their distances. These will then be used to create the largest 3D map ever constructed of the outer regions of the Milky Way, enabling insights into how our galaxy has formed and changed over time. The results will help place the Milky Way in the context of other galaxies, leading to a more complete understanding of the origin of our Universe. The investigators will also host a summer research experience for native Hawaiian college students, with the goal of increasing their representation in STEM at the graduate level.Galactic astronomy has entered a golden era, driven by the combination of large-scale multi-object spectroscopic surveys and the exquisite all-sky view provided by the European Space Agency’s Gaia Mission. However, the range of Gaia distances alone—and hence that of many of the major discoveries so far—is limited to a relatively nearby region (3 kpc from the Sun). A solution to this problem is the use of ground-based transient surveys, such as the NSF supported Zwicky Transient Factory (ZTF), which have expanded into all-sky networks hunting for rapid explosive phenomena such as supernovae and electromagnetic counterparts to compact binary mergers. The investigators will use asteroseismology to measure distances to a special type of star, M red giant stars, in the outer Galaxy using stellar light curves from these ongoing surveys. The investigators will exploit the synergy of Gaia with time-domain surveys and spectroscopic surveys to expand the dynamical map of our Galaxy by more than an order of magnitude over Gaia alone. By combining the star distance measurements with synthetic observations of their simulations, the investigators will use the new dynamical map to unveil the structure, dynamics, and formation history of the outer Galactic disk.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.