A New Approach To Ultra-Low Surface Brightness Imaging: Project Dragonfly

在目前最受欢迎的星系形成模型中，所有星系（包括我们自己的星系）都被一个巨大而复杂的恒星细丝和恒星流网络所包围，这是过去星系之间碰撞的遗迹。这些合并是星系聚集的主要机制。然而，预测的结构并没有像预期的数字那样出现。这就是“缺失子结构问题”，天文学中最令人烦恼的问题之一。最有可能解决这个问题的办法是，最近星系间碰撞的遗迹表面亮度（单位面积的光）太低，无法用传统望远镜探测到。多伦多大学和耶鲁大学已经建造了一种新型望远镜的原型，这种望远镜被优化用于探测这些低表面亮度结构。在这个提议中，我们寻求资金来扩大它的规模，使我们能够测试星系如何形成和演化的模型。

In the currently-favored model for building up galaxies, all galaxies (including our own) are surrounded by a vast and complex network of stellar filaments and streams, the relics of past collisions between galaxies. These mergers are the main mechanism by which galaxies assemble. However, the predicted structures have not been seen in anything like the the numbers expected. This is the "missing substructure problem", one of the most vexing in Astronomy. The most likely solution to the problem is that the relics of recent collisions between galaxies are simply too low in surface brightness (light per unit area) to be detected with conventional telescopes. The University of Toronto and Yale have constructed a prototype for a novel class of telescope that is optimized for the detection of these low surface brightness structures. In this proposal we seek the funds to grow it in size to enable us to test models for how galaxies form and evolve.