Near field cosmology in and around the Local Group

本星系群及其周围的近场宇宙学

• 批准号: 435084-2013
• 负责人: McConnachie, Alan
• 金额: $ 1.68万
• 依托单位: University of Victoria
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=552721
• 关键词: Near; field; cosmology; around; Local

How galaxies like our own Milky Way form and evolve is a major unanswered question in modern astronomy. Over the last decade, several distinct lines of enquiry in astronomy have converged to place significant focus on the study of the Milky Way and its nearest neighbours, targets that are unique in astronomy due to our ability to resolve the individual stars that light these galaxies up. On the observational side, we have discovered a huge number of new, very small, galaxies that surround the Milky Way and which have clearly been affected by being so close to a large galaxy like ours. On the theory side, it has become evident that our model of the evolution of the Universe - that works remarkably well when we look on the largest cosmic scales - struggles to explain the properties of these small galaxies. On technology fronts, new instruments are being developed that will allow us to dissect the properties of galaxies - large and small - at ever greater distances and with unprecedented accuracy by resolving each of their individual stars. My proposed research program is placed at the interface of these lines of enquiry, and will examine how the properties of these small galaxies change as we get further away from the Milky Way, to regions where these small systems have been able to evolve peacefully over their entire history. Is the difficulty that astronomers have in explaining what small galaxies look like a result of our model of galaxy formation being completely wrong, or is it because the galaxies we were looking at have been bashed about too much by the Milky Way to be good examples for us to compare the models to? In probing these questions, my research program will use some of the newest instruments available to not only answer these key science questions, but also to understand how to better develop the underlying technology to be best suited for this science.

像我们银河系这样的星系是如何形成和演化的，这是现代天文学中一大悬而未决的问题。在过去的十年里，天文学中的几个截然不同的研究方向已经汇聚到了对银河系及其近邻的研究上，这些目标在天文学中是独一无二的，因为我们有能力分辨出照亮这些星系的单个恒星。在观测方面，我们发现了大量新的、非常小的星系，它们环绕着银河系，显然受到了与我们这样的大星系如此近的影响。在理论方面，很明显，我们的宇宙演化模型--当我们观察最大的宇宙尺度时，这个模型运行得非常好--很难解释这些小星系的属性。在技术方面，正在开发新的仪器，使我们能够通过解析每一颗恒星，以前所未有的精度在更远的距离上剖析大小星系的性质。我提出的研究计划位于这些问题的交界处，将研究这些小星系的性质如何随着我们远离银河系而发生变化，直到这些小星系在其整个历史上能够和平演化的区域。天文学家之所以难以解释小星系的样子，是因为我们的星系形成模型是完全错误的，还是因为我们看到的星系被银河系猛烈抨击了太多，不能作为我们比较模型的好例子？在探索这些问题时，我的研究计划将使用一些可用的最新工具，不仅回答这些关键的科学问题，而且了解如何更好地开发最适合这门科学的基础技术。