MRI-R2: Acquisition of Recording Media to Triple the Sensitivity of the VLBA

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(Public Law 111-5)资助的。为了让天文学家拥有尽可能高的分辨率来探测最小角度大小的物体，他们需要大型望远镜，或者他们将彼此分开的望远镜发出的光组合在一起。随着望远镜之间的间隔增加，分辨更精细细节的能力也在增加。目前用于天文学的最大平台是地球本身。射电天文学家使用的射电望远镜分布在数千英里的甚大基线阵列(VLBA)中。VLBA研究了大量重要的科学问题，它还在确定天体在天空中的位置和运动方面提供了重要的服务，这是天文学的一个分支，称为天体测量学。天体测量学对所有天文学家都很重要，但它也为卫星导航和GPS系统的校准服务于商业和国防利益。美国国家射电天文台(NRAO)的射电天文学家已经意识到，通过在信号处理设备中添加计算能力和数据存储能力，将来自望远镜的信号关联起来，他们可以显著提高VLBA的灵敏度。他们的工作由国家科学基金会的重大研究仪器计划赞助，将使科学家能够看到较暗的物体，以便探测更远、更深的太空。它还将使他们能够提高天文测量的测量精度。这项工作将由新墨西哥州索科罗市NRAO的R·克雷格·沃克博士领导。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).In order for astronomers to have the highest possible resolution to detect objects of the smallest angular size, they require large telescopes, or they combine the light from telescopes that are separated from one another. As the separation between the telescopes increases, so does the ability to resolve finer details. The largest platform that is currently in use for astronomy is the earth itself. Radio astronomers use radio telescopes that are spread by thousands of miles in what is called the Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA). A large number of important scientific problems are investigated with the VLBA which also provides an important service in determining the positions and motions of objects on the sky, a branch of astronomy called astrometry. Astrometry is important for all astronomers, but it also serves commercial and defense interests for satellite navigation and calibration of the GPS system. Radio astronomers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) have realized that they can significantly increase the sensitivity of the VLBA by adding computing power and data storage capabilities to the signal processing equipment that correlates the signals from the telescopes. Their work, sponsored by the National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation program, will allow scientists to see fainter objects to probe farther and deeper into space. It will also allow them to improve the accuracy of measurements made for astrometry. The work will be led by Dr. R. Craig Walker of NRAO in Socorro, NM.