Replacement and upgrade of the Optical and Infrared Cameras for Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic

梅冈蒂克山天文台光学和红外相机的更换和升级

• 批准号: RTI-2023-00374
• 负责人: Doyon, René
• 金额: $ 10.52万
• 依托单位: Université de Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=763412
• 关键词: Replacement; upgrade; Optical; Infrared; Cameras

The Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic (OMM) is part of an international network of small telescopes dedicating a significant fraction of their time to follow-up observations of candidate transiting exoplanets, e.g., from the NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the future ARIEL ESA mission. The OMM has been very successful in its task, for instance with the recent discovery of TOI-1452b, one of the best water world candidates, a small (1.7 R_Earth) planet orbiting a low-mass star within the habitable zone, a planet that may be covered by a deep liquid ocean. This discovery will soon trigger follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope to characterize its atmosphere, in particular to seek the spectral signature of water. This key discovery was made possible partly thanks to OMM's optical instrument PESTO which is unfortunately no longer operational as of August 2022 due to a major failure of its camera sub-system. The OMM also features a unique infrared camera (CPAPIR) used for searching and studying brown dwarfs and planetary mass objects. While the camera is still working, the camera's cooling system (liquid nitrogen) is operationally very demanding and costly. This successful proposal will enable the replacement of the very productive PESTO camera and equip CPAPIR with a modern close-cycled cryo-cooler that will not only reduce its operational cost but simplify the overall operations of our observatory. Both CPAPIR and PESTO are the most requested instruments by astronomers at the OMM and, as it is possible to easily switch from one instrument to the other, they are on the telescope for the majority of the year. The OMM is a unique facility in Canada, as it enables undergraduate and graduate students to get hands-on experience with state-of-the-art astronomical instruments and modern queue-mode telescope operations. Thanks to the experience acquired during their studies, many of graduates find their way to work on large observatories or in the industry.

梅干提克山天文台 (OMM) 是国际小型望远镜网络的一部分，该网络将大部分时间用于对候选凌日系外行星进行后续观测，例如来自 NASA 凌日系外行星勘测卫星和未来 ARIEL ESA 任务的观测。 OMM 在其任务中非常成功，例如最近发现了 TOI-1452b，这是最好的水世界候选者之一，这是一颗小型（1.7 R_Earth）行星，围绕宜居带内的低质量恒星运行，该行星可能被深层液体海洋覆盖。这一发现很快将引发詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜的后续观测，以表征其大气层，特别是寻找水的光谱特征。这一关键发现的实现部分归功于 OMM 的光学仪器 PESTO，不幸的是，由于其相机子系统发生重大故障，该仪器截至 2022 年 8 月已不再运行。 OMM 还配备了独特的红外相机 (CPAPIR)，用于搜索和研究褐矮星和行星质量物体。当相机仍在工作时，相机的冷却系统（液氮）在操作上要求非常高且成本高昂。这项成功的提案将能够更换非常高效的 PESTO 相机，并为 CAPIR 配备现代化的闭路循环低温冷却器，这不仅可以降低其运营成本，还可以简化我们天文台的整体运营。 CAPIR 和 PESTO 都是 OMM 天文学家最需要的仪器，并且由于可以轻松地从一种仪器切换到另一种仪器，因此它们一年中的大部分时间都在望远镜上。 OMM 是加拿大的一个独特设施，因为它使本科生和研究生能够获得最先进的天文仪器和现代队列模式望远镜操作的实践经验。凭借在学习期间获得的经验，许多毕业生找到了在大型天文台或行业工作的途径。