PATT-linked grant for Warwick Astronomy & Astrophysics Group, April 2021 to March 2023

与 PATT 相关的沃里克天文学资助

• 批准号: ST/V005731/1
• 负责人: Thomas Marsh
• 金额: $ 3.87万
• 依托单位: University of Warwick
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FV005731%2F1
• 关键词: PATT; linked; grant; Warwick; Astronomy

At the end of their lives stars settle into one of three possible final compact states known as white dwarfs, neutron stars or black-holes. All three of these are incredibly dense by our standards, so much so that to a neutron star, matter at Earth-like densities is barely different from a vacuum. Many examples of such objects are known, and they are often highly active as they can be so closely paired up with other stars that we can see the effects of gas transferring from one star to the compact object. In such a process gas is heated to many millions of degrees, making these object efficient X-ray sources. Both white dwarfs and neutron stars can show explosive effects as material accreting onto them sparks into uncontrollable nuclear fusion, generating vast amounts of energy within seconds or minutes. Such explosions can light up the furthest reaches of the Universe to reveal the history of the build up of structures in the Universe. Our work centres on trying to understand such processes and how the various objects that we see relate to one another. The purpose of this grant is to support the travel needed to observe these objects on ground-based telescopes where we carry out observations of the high-speed processes that occur as material crashes onto these remarkable objects. The grant will also support work on exoplanets, where high-precision measurements of brightness and velocity are essential to the measurements of the masses and radii of planets required to understand the nature of planets far beyond our Solar System. Increasingly today such observations can be carried out at a distance across the internet, but there is still a need to be at the telescope wher one can most easily react to changing cirumstances, and data rates in some observing programs are too high to be effectively undertaken at a distance.

在生命的尽头，恒星会进入三种可能的最终致密状态之一，即白色矮星、中子星或黑洞。以我们的标准来看，这三颗恒星的密度都非常高，以至于对于中子星星来说，类似地球密度的物质与真空几乎没有区别。已知有许多这样的天体，它们通常非常活跃，因为它们可以与其他恒星如此紧密地配对，我们可以看到气体从一颗星星转移到致密天体的效果。在这样的过程中，气体被加热到数百万度，使这些物体成为高效的X射线源。白色矮星和中子星都可以表现出爆炸效应，因为吸积在它们上面的物质会引发无法控制的核聚变，在几秒钟或几分钟内产生大量的能量。这种爆炸可以照亮宇宙最远的地方，揭示宇宙结构的形成历史。我们的工作重点是试图理解这些过程，以及我们看到的各种物体如何相互关联。这笔赠款的目的是支持在地面望远镜上观察这些物体所需的旅行，我们在那里观察材料撞击这些非凡物体时发生的高速过程。该赠款还将支持系外行星的工作，其中亮度和速度的高精度测量对于了解远远超出我们太阳系的行星性质所需的行星质量和半径的测量至关重要。如今，这种观测越来越多地可以通过互联网在一定距离内进行，但仍然需要在望远镜上，因为人们可以最容易地对不断变化的情况做出反应，并且某些观测程序中的数据速率太高，无法有效地在远处进行。