CAREER: A Systematic Kinematic Survey of Young Milky Way Clusters

该奖项将允许Kevin Covey博士执行年轻星云星团的红外巡天（in - sync），这是对附近星团中数千颗年轻恒星的均匀、多历元径向速度巡天。in - sync使用来自阿帕奇点天文台银河演化实验（APOGEE）和浸入式光栅红外光谱仪（IGRINS）的数据来回答三个问题：1)星团是如何形成的？2)年轻星团中紧密双星的频率是多少？3)主序前双星的详细恒星特性是什么？PI还将通过洛厄尔业余研究倡议（LARI）吸引公民科学家，将他的研究和教育项目结合起来。他最初将与业余天文学家一起监测年轻的可变恒星，这将为同行评审的出版物提供有价值的数据。柯维博士随后将扩大他的计划，直接将LARI的参与者与洛厄尔天文台的机器人望远镜的数据联系起来。由于星团是无价的天体物理实验室，这项工作将提供银河系化学演化和恒星形成历史的独特示踪剂，并使恒星演化模型的严格测试成为可能。通过LARI计划，这项工作还将提高公众的科学素养，并为新一代的公民科学项目提供信息。

This award will allow Dr. Kevin Covey to perform the INfrared Survey of Young Nebulous Clusters (IN-SYNC), which is a homogeneous, multi-epoch radial velocity survey of thousands of young stars in nearby clusters. IN-SYNC uses data from the Apachee Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), as well as the Immersion Grating INfrared Spectrometer (IGRINS), in order to answer three questions:1) How do star clusters form? 2) What is the frequency of close binaries in young clusters?3) What are the detailed stellar properties of pre-main sequence spectroscopic binaries?The PI will also integrate his research and education programs by engaging citizen scientists through the Lowell Amateur Research Initiative (LARI). He will initially work with amateur astronomers to monitor variable young stars, which will provide valuable data for peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Covey will subsequently expand his program by directly connecting LARI participants to data from the robotic telescopes from Lowell Observatory.Since star clusters are invaluable astrophysical laboratories, this work will provide unique tracers of the Milky Way's chemical evolution and star formation history, as well as enable stringent tests of stellar evolution models. Through the LARI initiative, this work will also result in increased public scientific literacy, as well as inform a new generation of citizen-science projects.