A High-Speed Multi-beam Camera for Time-Domain Astrophysics

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From the precise motion of a hummingbird's wings, how a bullet passes through an apple, to how some of everyday objects vibrate, some processes in nature happen so fast that the eye cannot appreciate their beauty nor understand the details of what and how they work. To be able to understand them we need to slow down their motion by factors of tens to thousands using state-of-the-art equipment. The study of many astrophysical processes suffers from the same problem: they are happening or evolving so fast that standard instruments and techniques are not good enough to study them. With the funds requested we will build OPTICAM-ARG, a state-of-the-art camera to virtually "slow-down time". This high-time resolution camera will be capable of making 10,000 photos per second of the changing sky. This amazing high frame rate will allow us to study how black holes and neutron stars devour nearby stars, helping to understand what happens with the gas that is ripped off from the stars, as it travels through those tiny (few km) regions of the most strongly curved space-time known to exist in Nature. OPTICAM-ARG is part of our prototypes for a much ambitious vision we call eNFOCAR (Network of Fast-Optical Cameras for AstRophysics). With eNFOCAR we aim to provide a new standard (low-cost) imager for mid- to large-size observatories with unprecedented time-resolution capabilities. By building a network of telescopes around the globe we can achieve unparalleled continuous coverage of the rapidly changing sky, opening up a new window of opportunities to understand some of the most mysterious astrophysical phenomena.