Variable Stars

首席研究员(PI)建议继续她目前由美国国家科学基金会资助的变星研究。她在玛丽亚·米切尔天文台的观测计划是：1.拍摄变星，以维护和扩展天文台建立的变星数据库；2.分析选定变量的周期变化数据(这项任务主要由学生助理完成)；3.寻找未知变量。这项工作需要时间，每个明星都会提出自己的问题。例如，由恒星演化引起的缓慢而稳定的周期变化将使用天文台的照片档案进行研究。具有更复杂周期行为的恒星将通过位于山上的远程访问的自动测光望远镜进行研究。亚利桑那州霍普金斯。该项目的科学目标是确定脉动变星的结构。这项建议的教育目标是将对自然科学感兴趣和有天赋的学生纳入建议研究的所有方面，并为他们提供现实的动手体验，就像玛丽亚·米切尔天文台多年来所做的那样。这项研究是由NSF的REU Site计划资助的。

The Principal Investigator (PI) proposes to continue with her current NSF funded research of variable stars. Her observing plan at the Maria Mitchell Observatory is to 1. photograph variable stars in order to maintain and extend the variable star data base established at the Observatory, 2. analyze the data of selected variables for period changes (a task primarily performed by student assistants), and 3. search for unknown variables. The work takes time, with each star presenting its own problems. Slow, steady period changes caused, for example, by stellar evolution will be studied using the Observatory's photographic archives. Stars with more complicated periodic behavior will be investigated by a remotely-accessed, automatic photometric telescope on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona. The scientific goal of the project is to determine the structure of pulsating variable stars. The educational goals of this proposal are to include students with interest and talent in the natural sciences in all aspects of the proposed research and to provide them with realistic hands-on experience, as the Maria Mitchell Observatory has done for many years. This research is funded in NSF's REU Site Program.